lieutenant colonel

noun U.S. Military.

a commissioned officer ranking next below a colonel and next above a major.

Origin of lieutenant colonel

First recorded in 1590–1600

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for lieutenant colonel

Contemporary Examples of lieutenant colonel

The Israeli military quickly suspended the officer, a lieutenant-colonel, and stressed that the beating ran against Army policies.
Mira Ten-Hagen’s Viral Video: Israel and Foreign Activists Clash
Dan Ephron
April 17, 2012
Lieutenant-Colonel Abercromby, who had led the only serious sortie from Yorktown, chewed his sword in impotent rage.
Washington in Victory
Piers Brendon
October 10, 2008

Historical Examples of lieutenant colonel

On the same day Lieutenant-Colonel Gresham was forced by ill-health to leave us.
With Manchesters in the East
Gerald B. Hurst
In 1748, he was a lieutenant-colonel in the Swiss guards, in the service of Holland.
Chronicles of Border Warfare
Alexander Scott Withers
He was a lieutenant-colonel, just one step above my own rank.
War from the Inside
Frederick L. (Frederick Lyman) Hitchcock
Lieutenant-Colonel Albright was leading our regiment and I was by his side.
War from the Inside
Frederick L. (Frederick Lyman) Hitchcock
This was no less than the removal of our Lieutenant-Colonel.
The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete
Charles James Lever (1806-1872)

British Dictionary definitions for lieutenant colonel

lieutenant colonel

noun

an officer holding commissioned rank immediately junior to a colonel in certain armies, air forces, and marine corps

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012