marshal
Americannoun
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marshals
plural
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a military officer of the highest rank, as in the French and some other armies.
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an administrative officer of a U.S. judicial district who performs duties similar to those of a sheriff.
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a court officer serving processes, attending court, giving personal service to the judges, etc.
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the chief of a police or fire department in some cities.
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a police officer in some communities.
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a higher officer of a royal household or court.
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an official charged with the arrangement or regulation of ceremonies, parades, etc..
the marshal of the St. Patrick's Day parade.
verb (used with object)
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marshals,
present (3rd person singular)
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marshaled,
past participle, past
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marshalled,
past participle, past (especially British)
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marshaling,
present participle
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marshalling
present participle (especially British)
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to arrange in proper order; set out in an orderly manner; arrange clearly.
to marshal facts; to marshal one's arguments.
- Antonyms:
- scatter
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to array, as for battle.
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to usher or lead ceremoniously.
Their host marshaled them into the room.
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Heraldry. to combine (two or more coats of arms) on a single escutcheon.
noun
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(in some armies and air forces) an officer of the highest rank
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(in England) an officer, usually a junior barrister, who accompanies a judge on circuit and performs miscellaneous secretarial duties
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a Federal court officer assigned to a judicial district whose functions are similar to those of a sheriff
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(in some states) the chief police or fire officer
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an officer who organizes or conducts ceremonies, parades, etc
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Also called: knight marshal. (formerly in England) an officer of the royal family or court, esp one in charge of protocol
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an obsolete word for ostler
verb
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to arrange in order
to marshal the facts
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to assemble and organize (troops, vehicles, etc) prior to onward movement
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to arrange (assets, mortgages, etc) in order of priority
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to guide or lead, esp in a ceremonious way
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to combine (two or more coats of arms) on one shield
Synonym Usage
See gather.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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marshalcynoun
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marshalernoun
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marshallernoun
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marshalshipnoun
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submarshalnoun
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undermarshalnoun
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remarshalverb (used with object)
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unmarshaledadjective
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unmarshalledadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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marshalsimple
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marshalssimple
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have marshaledperfect
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have marshalledperfect
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has marshaledperfect
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has marshalledperfect
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am marshalingprogressive
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am marshallingprogressive
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are marshalingprogressive
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are marshallingprogressive
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is marshalingprogressive
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is marshallingprogressive
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have been marshalingperfect progressive
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have been marshallingperfect progressive
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has been marshalingperfect progressive
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has been marshallingperfect progressive
Past
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marshaledsimple
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marshalledsimple
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had marshaledperfect
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had marshalledperfect
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was marshalingprogressive
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was marshallingprogressive
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were marshalingprogressive
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were marshallingprogressive
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had been marshalingperfect progressive
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had been marshallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of marshal
1225–75; Middle English marshal, syncopated variant of mareschal < Old French < Germanic; compare Old High German marahscalh groom, equivalent to marah horse ( see mare 1) + scalh servant, cognate with Old English scealc
Explanation
A federal marshal knocks on your door. You panic: a marshal is a law officer. What do you do? You marshal your thoughts, that is, put them in order. Marshal derives from the Old French mareschal, for stable officer. The stable officer had charge of the horses, tending to them, putting them in order, readying them for action. If you are a marshal, you're an officer. If you marshal yourself, you get yourself ready, preparing for action.
Vocabulary lists containing marshal
Content Summary G.1: Principles of Geography
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The Odyssey
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The Last Olympian
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For the last 19 years, student-loan lender Sallie Mae has commissioned a study on how families marshal all the economic forces at their disposal to pay for college.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Bonta’s office, along with state fire marshal, are also challenging that oversight in court, arguing the lines that run through Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties were incorrectly reclassified as intrastate pipelines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
The US president refers to Munir as his "favourite field marshal", following their acquaintance in the aftermath of conflict with India that Trump helped mediate last year.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
The closest woman for the job was Gail Curley, the Supreme Court’s marshal.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
He was elected to nothing, honored for nothing—and yet, though I did not realize this until years later, he was grand marshal of our daily parade.
From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
On Thursday, federal marshals in Miami took the Tates into custody.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026
Antonelli had just made his pit stop when the VSC was deployed to allow marshals to recover some debris from the track.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Before letting us start, the track marshals made us take down the GoPro camera attached to the windshield, which would otherwise have been pointed at my horrified face.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
She marshals the data to show how women continue to face unique impediments to success, and how both men and women justify their actions in a way that preserves the status quo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
The big marshals stood her on the curb and a jangle of jeering shrieks went up from behind the barricades.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
New York City’s charismatic mayor, Zohran Mamdani, won his election as a DSA member in 2025 and has since marshaled political support for fellow progressives running for other offices in the city he runs.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
In many places she chooses to undercut the image of the lone genius, sovereign over his book-lined study and carefully marshaled pens.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Don’t question whether he marshaled a compelling reason to do so.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2026
Even the Treasury’s pivot toward heavier Treasury bill financing points to a world in which market structure, regulation, and innovation are quietly being marshaled to sustain an ever-larger debt load.
From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2025
Somehow I marshaled the concentration to lift an arm and pull him close.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
For months, faith-based and secular groups there have marshalled thousands of volunteers to prepare for a potential mass deportation event they fear could result in a humanitarian crisis.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
They have created the infrastructure and marshalled the resources for an intergenerational struggle.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
After the event, as fans tried to head home, car parks became gridlocked as vehicles which had earlier been marshalled into rows tried to move off.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2025
By 2010, Woodcock had marshalled the center into a powerhouse with great independence — in many ways, outside the reach of the political whims of the commissioners who came and went.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2025
The indefatigable bell now sounded for the fourth time: the classes were marshalled and marched into another room to breakfast: how glad I was to behold a prospect of getting something to eat!
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
These ships have the ability to launch helicopters that support boarding operations, and some are capable of marshaling commercial vessels to specific areas to hold them in place.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
Dubbed the Genesis Mission, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios called it “the largest marshaling of federal scientific resources since the Apollo program.”
From Barron's ● Nov. 24, 2025
“Kara went for it. She did what artists do in terms of marshaling an energy and force, and then concentrating it on this object and coming up with this piece.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2025
In South Korea, the country’s sprawling family-run conglomerates turbocharged the "Miracle on the Han River" by marshaling capital, technology and labor to industrialize the country at breakneck speed.
From Salon ● Dec. 31, 2024
“We should get you out of here,” Theo says, finally latching on to what I was trying to tell him, marshaling me toward the stairwell.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Trains pulled in every 15 or 20 minutes, as many as the endlessly enterprising operators of Ukraine's railway network could find in the sidings and marshalling yards.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026
Trusty alone made 17 clearances and three interceptions, marshalling the depleted visitors to great effect.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2026
The Telegraph's Michael Hogan declared that Clenshaw "had gone out on a high by marshalling this milestone week with ambition and aplomb".
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2025
Accurate CFRs are critically important in an outbreak because marshalling a public health response depends on understanding the disease’s severity.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2024
Bacon, from the moment that he perceived the marshalling of the troops outside the gate, silenced his cannon, and waked with coolness, and in profound silence, the approach of the opposing columns.
From The Cavaliers of Virginia or, The Recluse of Jamestown. Vol. II by William A. (Alexander) Caruthers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
