marshal

• marshall (US)
• mareschal (obsolete)

From Middle English marschal, from Anglo-Norman mareschal (“farrier; military commander”), from Medieval Latin mariscalcus (“groom, army commander, court dignitary”), either from Frankish *marhaskalk,[1] or Old High German marah-scalc (“horse-servant”),[2] from Proto-West Germanic *marh + *skalk (whence Old Saxon maraskalk, marahscalc). Compare English mare + shalk.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑːʃəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɹʃəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)ʃəl
• Homophones: Marshall, martial

marshal (plural marshals)

1. (historical) A high-ranking officer in the household of a medieval prince or lord, who was originally in charge of the cavalry and later the military forces in general.
2. A military officer of the highest rank in several countries, including France and the former Soviet Union; equivalent to a general of the army in the United States. See also field marshal.
   • 1936, H. Hessell Tiltman, The Far East Comes Nearer‎, Jarrolds, page 249:

     Where stands Marshal Chiang Kai-shek in this conflict of opinion concerning the tactics which China should adopt towards the aggressor? Chiang Kai-shek, according to officials who know his mind with whom I have talked, is all for resistance- as soon as he thinks he can win!

3. A person in charge of the ceremonial arrangement and management of a gathering.
4. (US) A federal lawman.

• → Malay: marsyal

marshal (third-person singular simple present marshals, present participle marshalling or marshaling, simple past and past participle marshalled or marshaled)

1. To arrange (troops, etc.) in line for inspection or a parade.
   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎:

     Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins like a veteran army that had marched down to drink, only to be stricken motionless at the water’s edge.

2. (by extension) To arrange (facts, etc.) in some methodical order.
   • 1963 December, “The fish traffic of Aberdeen”, in Modern Railways, page 389:

     This train is formed only of "Blue Spot" wagons for London; vans for Mac Fisheries Finsbury Park depot are marshalled at the rear to be detached at Finsbury Park.

3. To ceremoniously guide, conduct or usher.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     Our conquering ſwords ſhal marſhal vs the way
     UUe vſe to martch vpon the ſlaughtered foe:
     Trampling their bowels with our horſes hoofes: […]

4. To gather data for transmission.
5. (computing, transitive) To serialize an object into a marshalled state represented by a sequence of bytes that can later be converted back into an object with equivalent properties.

• (serialize computing data): serialize, encode

• (antonym(s) of “serialize computing data”):: unmarshal, decode, deserialize, unserialize

• remarshal

• marshal on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• “marshal”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “marshal”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “marshal”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “marshal”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.