FromMiddle English capitain ,capteyn , fromOld French capitaine , fromLate Latin capitāneus , fromLatin caput ( “ head ” ) (Englishcap ). Ultimately fromProto-Indo-European *kap- .Doublet ofchieftain , also from Old French.
captain (plural captains )
Achief orleader .1929 ,Rudyard Kipling ,The English Way [1] :Stand up-stand up, Northumberland! / I bid you answer true, / If England's King has under his hand / ACaptain as good as you?
The personlawfully in command of a ship or othervessel .1873 ,Jules Verne , chapter I, in[ anonymous] , transl.,Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; [ … ] ,James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.:Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co. ,→OCLC , part I, page 3:Merchants, common sailors,captains of vessels, skippers, […] naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.
Thecaptain is the last man to leave a sinking ship.
Anarmy officer with arank between the most senior grade oflieutenant andmajor .1910 ,Emerson Hough , chapter I, inThe Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise , Indianapolis, Ind.:The Bobbs-Merrill Company ,→OCLC :"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the youngcaptain , as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there. [ …] ."
Anaval officer with a rank betweencommander andcommodore . A commissioned officer in theUnited States Navy ,Coast Guard ,NOAA Corps , orPHS Corps of a grade superior to acommander and junior to arear admiral (lower half) . A captain is equal in grade or rank to aUnited States Army ,Marine Corps , orAir Force colonel . ( aviation ) A rank qualifying an airline pilot to act aspilot in command of a two-pilotflight crew .Coordinate terms: first officer ,copilot One of theathletes on asports team who isdesignated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with areferee orofficial .2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool ”, inBBC Sport :As Di Matteo celebrated andcaptain John Terry raised the trophy for the fourth time, the Italian increased his claims to become the permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas by landing a trophy.
The leader of a group of workers.John Henry said to thecaptain , "A man ain't nothing but a man."
1990 , Marshall C. Eakin,A British Enterprise in Brazil :The assistant minecaptains then reported to the minecaptain in charge of all underground operations and subordinate only to the superintendent himself.
Thehead boy of aschool . Amaître d' , aheadwaiter .1977 , Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey, lyricists,"Hotel California" ,So I called up theCaptain , "Please bring me my wine." / He said: "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969." ( Southern US ) An honorific title given to a prominent person. Seecolonel . an army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major
Afrikaans:kaptein Albanian:kapiten (sq) m Arabic:نَقِيب (ar) m ( naqīb ) ,قُبْطَان m ( qubṭān ) Hijazi Arabic:قُبْطان m ( qubṭān, gubṭān ) Armenian:կապիտան (hy) ( kapitan ) Belarusian:капіта́н m ( kapitán ) Bulgarian:капитан m ( kapitan ) Catalan:capità (ca) m Chinese:Mandarin:上尉 (zh) ( shàngwèi ) Czech:kapitán (cs) m Danish:kaptajn (da) Dutch:kapitein (nl) m Esperanto:kapitano Finnish:kapteeni (fi) French:capitaine (fr) Galician:capitán (gl) m Georgian:კაპიტანი ( ḳaṗiṭani ) German:Stabshauptmann (de) m ,Hauptmann (de) m Greek:λοχαγός (el) m ( lochagós ) Ancient:λοχαγός m ( lokhagós ) Hebrew:סֶרֶן (he) m ( séren ) Hungarian:százados (hu) Icelandic:kafteinn (is) m ,höfuðsmaður m ,kapteinn m Indonesian:kapten (id) Irish:captaen m Italian:capitano (it) m Japanese:大尉 (ja) ( たいい, taii ) Korean:대위(大尉) (ko) ( daewi ) Macedonian:капетан m ( kapetan ) Malay:kapten (ms) Malayalam:കപ്പിത്താന് ( kappittāṉ ) Maori:kāpene Marathi:कॅप्टन m ( kĕpṭan ) Norman:cap'taine m ( Jersey ) Northern Ohlone:wétnés Norwegian:Bokmål:kaptein m Nynorsk:kaptein m Occitan:capitani (oc) m Persian:سروان (fa) ( sarvân ) Plautdietsch:Kapitän m Polish:kapitan (pl) m Portuguese:capitão (pt) m Russian:капита́н (ru) m ( kapitán ) Scottish Gaelic:caiptean m Serbo-Croatian:Cyrillic:са̏тнӣк m ,са̏тница f ,капѐта̄н m Roman:sȁtnīk (sh) m ,sȁtnica (sh) f ,kapètān (sh) m Slovak:kapitán m Slovene:stotnik m ,stotnica f ,kapétan (sl) m ,kapétanka f Sorbian:Lower Sorbian:stotnik m ,hawptman m Spanish:capitán (es) m Swahili:kapteni (sw) Swedish:kapten (sv) c Tagalog:kapitan (tl) Thai:กัปตัน (th) Turkish:Yüzbaşı (tr) Ukrainian:капіта́н m ( kapitán ) Uzbek:kapitan (uz) Walloon:captinne (wa) m Welsh:capten m ,capteniaid m pl Yiddish:קאַפּיטאַן m ( kapitan )
a naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore or rear admiral
an air force officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major
the person lawfully in command of a sea-going vessel
Albanian:kapiten (sq) m Arabic:طَيَّار m ( ṭayyār ) ,قُبْطَان m ( qubṭān ) ,رُبَّان m ( rubbān ) Hijazi Arabic:قُبطان m ( gubṭān ) Armenian:նավապետ (hy) ( navapet ) Aromanian:cãpitan m Belarusian:капіта́н m ( kapitán ) Bulgarian:капитан m ( kapitan ) Burmese:ကက်ပတိန် (my) ( kakpa.tin ) Chinese:Mandarin:艦長 / 舰长 (zh) ( jiànzhǎng ) Czech:kapitán (cs) m Danish:kaptajn (da) c Dutch:gezagvoerder (nl) m kapitein (nl) m Egyptian: (sḫry ) Erzya:венчазор ( venčazor ) Esperanto:kapitano Faroese:skipari m Finnish:kapteeni (fi) French:capitaine (fr) German:Kapitän (de) m Greek:πλοίαρχος (el) m ( ploíarchos ) ,( informal ) καπετάνιος (el) m ( kapetánios ) Ancient:πρωρεύς m ( prōreús ) Hebrew:קְבַרְנִיט (he) m ( qvarnít ) ,רַב חוֹבֵל (he) m ( rav ẖovél ) ,קֶפְּטֵן (he) m ( kepten ) Hindi:जहाज़रान m ( jahāzrān ) Hungarian:kapitány (hu) ,parancsnok (hu) Icelandic:skipstjóri (is) m Indonesian:kapten (id) ,nakhoda (id) Irish:captaen m Italian:capitano (it) m Japanese:船長 (ja) ( せんちょう, senchō ) Korean:선장(船長) (ko) ( seonjang ) Latvian:kapteinis m Malay:kapten (ms) Middle English:schipman ,mariner Ngazidja Comorian:nahudha class5/ 6 Norman:cap'taine m ( Jersey ) Norwegian:Bokmål:kaptein m ,skipsfører m Nynorsk:kaptein m ,skipsførar m Persian:کاپیتان (fa) ( kâpitân ) Plautdietsch:Kapitän m Polish:kapitan (pl) m Portuguese:capitão (pt) m ,capitã (pt) f Romanian:căpitan (ro) m Russian:капита́н (ru) m ( kapitán ) Scottish Gaelic:caiptean m ,sgiobair m Spanish:capitán (es) m Swahili:nahodha (sw) Swedish:kapten (sv) Thai:ไต้ก๋ง (th) ( dtâi-gǒng ) Turkish:kaptan (tr) Ukrainian:капіта́н m ( kapitán ) Vietnamese:thuyền trưởng (vi) Welsh:capten m ,capteniaid m pl Yiddish:קאַפּיטאַן m ( kapitan )
the person lawfully in command of an airliner
one of the athletes on a sports team designated to make decisions
Translations to be checked
captain (third-person singular simple present captains ,present participle captaining ,simple past and past participle captained )
( intransitive ) To act as captain( transitive ) To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team.