captain

1. (n) The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel. 2. (n) An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major. 3. (n) A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to a United States Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel. 4. (n) (aviation) A rank qualifying an airline pilot to act as pilot in command of a two-pilot flight crew. 5. (n) One of the athletes on a sports team who is designated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with a referee or official. 6. (n) A chief or leader. 7. (n) A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore. 8. (v) (transitive) To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team. 9. (v) (intransitive) To act as captain 10. (n) The leader of a group of workers. 11. (n) The head boy of a school. 12. (n) A maître d', a headwaiter. 13. (n) (Southern US) An honorific title given to a prominent person. See colonel. 14. (n) The honorific of a captain, especially a ship's captain or a person with the military rank of captain. 15. (n) (before a descriptive word or phrase) Forms a title for a superhero seen as embodying or possessing in high degree the qualities associated with the ensuing phrase 16. (n) (humorous or ironic, by extension from the superhero sense) Forms a title or nickname for a person; typically a nonce coinage