marshal

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A military officer of the highest rank in some countries.
2. n. A field marshal.
3. n. A U.S. federal officer of a judicial district who carries out court orders and discharges duties similar to those of a sheriff.
4. n. A city law enforcement officer in the United States who carries out court orders.
5. n. The head of a police or fire department in the United States.
6. n. A person in charge of a parade or ceremony.
7. n. A high official in a royal court, especially one aiding the sovereign in military affairs.
8. v. To arrange or place (troops, for example) in line for a parade, maneuver, or review.
9. v. To arrange, place, or set in methodical order: marshal facts in preparation for an exam. See Synonyms at arrange.
10. v. To enlist and organize: trying to marshal public support.
11. v. To guide ceremoniously; conduct or usher.
12. v. To take up positions in or as if in a military formation.
13. v. To take form or order: facts marshaling as research progressed.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An officer charged with the duty of regulating processions and ceremonies, deciding on points of precedence, and maintaining order: applied generally to such officers throughout the middle ages and in more recent times, usually with some explanatory term: as, marshal of the palace; marshal of the lists. The functions of the king's groom or farrier in various European countries were extended till the royal marshal became one of the highest military and civil officers; and the title of marshal was applied, with qualifications, to a large number of officers having similar duties. In England the king's marshal (along with the royal constable till the time of Henry VIII., and afterward alone) had charge of the ordering of arms, and of all matters of chivalry and knighthood, etc.; and he is still represented by the hereditary earl marshal (which see, under earl).
2. n. A military officer of high rank, usually the highest under the chief of the state or the minister of war. Iu many countries the title is commonly modified by some other term: thus, in England, it has the form field-marshal; in Germany, feldmarschall; in France, maréchal de France.
3. n. In the United States, a civil officer appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, in each judicial district, as the executive or administrative officer (corresponding to the sheriff of a county) for the United States Supreme Court, and for the circuit and district courts within his district. There are also marshals for the consular courts in China, Japan, Siam, and Turkey. United States marshals were formerly charged with the duty of taking the national census in their districts; the officers who take the State census in certain States are called marshals or census marshals.
4. n. An officer of any private society appointed to regulate its ceremonies and execute its orders.
5. n. In some universities, as in Cambridge, England, an officer attendant upon the chancellor or his deputy.
6. To dispose or set in order; arrange methodically; array.
7. Specifically— To draw up in battle array; review, as troops.
8. To order, as a procession.
9. To lead in a desired course; train; discipline.
10. To act as a marshal to; lead as harbinger or guide; usher.
11. In heraldry, to dispose (as more than one distinct coat of arms upon a shield) so as to form a single composition; group, as two or more distinct shields, so as to form a single composition; also, to associate (such accessories as the helm, mantling, crest, etc., and knightly and other insignia) with a shield of arms, thus again forming a single heraldic composition.
12. To arrange (the cars of a freight-train) in proper station order.
13. A common old spelling of martial as confused with marshal.

Wiktionary

1. n. A high-ranking officer in the household of a medieval prince or lord, who was originally in charge of the cavalry and later the military forces in general.
2. n. A military officer of the highest rank in several countries, including France and the former Soviet Union; equivalent to a general of the army in the United States. See also field marshal.
3. n. A person in charge of the ceremonial arrangement and management of a gathering.
4. n. US A federal lawman.
5. v. To arrange troops etc. in line for inspection or a parade.
6. v. by extension To arrange facts etc. in some methodical order.
7. v. To ceremoniously guide, conduct or usher.
8. v. To gather data for transmission.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Originally, an officer who had the care of horses; a groom.
2. n. An officer of high rank, charged with the arrangement of ceremonies, the conduct of operations, or the like.
3. n. One who goes before a prince to declare his coming and provide entertainment; a harbinger; a pursuivant.
4. n. One who regulates rank and order at a feast or any other assembly, directs the order of procession, and the like.
5. n. The chief officer of arms, whose duty it was, in ancient times, to regulate combats in the lists.
6. n. (France) The highest military officer.
7. n. (Am. Law) A ministerial officer, appointed for each judicial district of the United States, to execute the process of the courts of the United States, and perform various duties, similar to those of a sheriff. The name is also sometimes applied to certain police officers of a city.
8. v. To dispose in order; to arrange in a suitable manner.
9. v. To direct, guide, or lead.
10. v. (Her.) To dispose in due order, as the different quarterings on an escutcheon, or the different crests when several belong to an achievement.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. make ready for action or use
2. n. (in some countries) a military officer of highest rank
3. n. a law officer having duties similar to those of a sheriff in carrying out the judgments of a court of law
4. v. lead ceremoniously, as in a procession
5. v. arrange in logical order
6. v. place in proper rank