1. An officer of the navy or army who holds office by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer. (In the army, the warrant officers are now intermediate in rank between the commissioned and the non-commissioned officers.)
1693. Lond. Gaz., No. 2848/4. Two or more Commission or Warrant-Officers of Their Majesties Ships.
1704. Milit. Dict. (ed. 2), s.v. Officer, Warrant, or Staff-Officers, those who have not the King’s Commission, but are appointed by the Colonels and Captains; as the Quarter-Masters, Sergeants, Corporals, and in the same number are included Chaplains and Surgeons.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 103. I called all the Warrant officers together.
1815. Falconer’s Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Warrant-Officers, are persons employed in the royal navy, by warrant from the Commissioners of the navy, to take charge of the stores issued to them from his Majesty’s dock-yards.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, x. The boatswain talked over the matter with the other warrant officers.
1850. H. Melville, White Jacket, I. vi. 36. Next in order come the Warrant or Forward officers, consisting of the Boatswain, Gunner, Carpenter, and Sail-maker.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Warrant-officer,… In the royal navy it was an officer holding a warrant from the navy board, as the master, surgeon, purser, boatswain, gunner, carpenter, &c. In the year 1831, when the commissioners of the navy, or navy board, were abolished, all these powers reverted to the admiralty.
1912. King’s Regul. Army, § 284. The position of warrant officers is inferior to that of all commissioned officers, but superior to that of all N. C. Os.
2. An officer whose duty it is to serve warrants.
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict.
1901. Daily Chron., 16 April, 3/2. The remainder of the staff, consisting of the jailer, the under-jailer, the warrant-sergeant, and various warrant officers, are all policemen, selected for their duties by the police authorities.
