[UNDER-1 6 a. Cf. Du. onderofficier, G. unterofficier, -offizier, Da., Norw. and Sw. underofficer.] A sub-officer.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), III. iv. 53. Confedered and entendyd with other suche brybours, whiche that were your vnder offycers.
c. 1425[?]. Lucidarie (1909), 29. Hedes & vndirofficeres of hooly chirche.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 112. He spake to al the vnder officers sharplye.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, II. i. 22. Vnto whom the souldiers and vnder-officers are to obey.
1626. Jackson, Creed, VIII. xxix. § 5. Whether Pilate himselfe did write this title, or caused it to be written by some under-officer of the court.
1658–9. Ld. Falkland, in Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 154. Major-general Overton might have been committed by the general as an under-officer.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4472/1. Bezeredi, with several of his Under-Officers,… divulged it to the common Soldiers.
1796. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 121. Two under officers are sent from the rear division.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., V. xiii. 470. All officers and under-officers were obliged to appear at his head-quarters.
Hence Under-officered a.1, furnished with under-officers.
1844. Thackeray, B. Lyndon, vi. The Prussian army … was officered and under-officered by native Prussians.
