rank and file
the members of a group or organization apart from its leaders or officers.
Origin of rank and file
1Other words from rank and file
- rank-and-file, adjective
Words Nearby rank and file
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use rank and file in a sentence
Asked what kind of support he got from rank-and-file Democrats, he paused before replying with a hearty laugh.
Repubs Should Take It From Kucinich: Impeachment Isn’t Worth It | Eleanor Clift | December 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTRank-and-file conservatives by and large do not share these extreme anti-equality, anti-abortion, anti-women attitudes.
Some rank-and-file evangelicals may have switched their position or even advocated for reform.
Even Conservative Evangelical Support Couldn’t Save Immigration Reform | Jacob Lupfer | July 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn recent Republican congressional primaries, the rank-and-file has voted “no” to reflexive interventionism.
Party leaders backed McMorris Rodgers; the conservative rank-and-file supported Price.
Could an Obscure Ethics Rule Endanger Republican Star Cathy McMorris Rodgers? | David Freedlander | February 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Most ominous feature of it all, republicanism gained a large footing in the rank-and-file of the army.
The Life of Mazzini | Bolton KingFor the leaders, it may last a little longer than for the rank-and-file.
The New Society | Walther RathenauThey were followed by the great bulk of the rank-and-file of so-called Jewish Socialists.
The myth of the Jewish menace in world affairs | Lucien WolfDuring the Crimean War, he took care of the fame of the rank-and-file of the army.
The losses on our side consisted of a colonel killed, and seventy-four rank-and-file wounded.
British Dictionary definitions for rank and file
the ordinary soldiers of an army, excluding the officers
the great mass or majority of any group or organization, as opposed to the leadership
(modifier) of, relating to, or characteristic of the rank and file: rank-and-file opinion; rank-and-file support
Derived forms of rank and file
- rank and filer, noun
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
Cultural definitions for rank and file
The people who form the major portion of any group or organization, excluding the leaders: “The rumors of corruption at the top disturbed the party's rank and file.” This phrase comes from military usage, where enlisted men march in ranks (close abreast) and files (one behind another), whereas officers march outside these formations.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with rank and file
Followers, the general membership, as in This new senator really appeals to the rank and file in the labor unions. This expression comes from the military, where a rank denotes soldiers standing side by side in a row, and file refers to soldiers standing behind one another. The first recorded figurative use of this term was in 1860.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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