Also 7 brigadeere. [? a. Fr. brigadier (not in Cotgr., 1611), f. brigade: see above.]
1. More correctly Brigadier-General: A military officer in command of a brigade; the status ranks between a major-general and a colonel, but is only local or temporary, being generally held by the senior colonel of the regiments or battalions brigaded together.
1678. Sir C. Lyttelton, in Hatton Corr. (1878), 162. It shall not rest upon him if I be not made a brigadeere.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2573/4. His Majesty sent Monsieur de la Meloniere, Brigadier-General, with 5 Regiments. Ibid. (1703), 3916/1. He has appoint 4 Brigadiers General.
1809. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., IV. 484. I appointed Colonel Low to be a Brigadier General.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 3. Officers serving on the Staff in the capacity of Brigadier-Generals are to take Rank … from their Commissions as Colonels in the Army, not from the dates of their appointments as Brigadiers.
† 2. Brigadier-wig: see quot. Obs.
c. 1770. J. Granger’s Lett. (1805), 280. A full wig tied back in one curl is a Major, in two curls is a Brigadier.
1772. Graves, Spirit. Quix., III. xiii. (D.). A man … in a brigadier wig, and grave habit.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., li. He … pushed back his brigadier wig.
