Dictionary Definition
chief adj : most important element; "the chief
aim of living"; "the main doors were of solid glass"; "the
principal rivers of America"; "the principal example"; "policemen
were primary targets" [syn: chief(a), main(a), primary(a),
principal(a)]
Noun
2 a person who exercises control over workers;
"if you want to leave early you have to ask the foreman" [syn:
foreman, gaffer, honcho, boss]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From chief (modern: chef).Pronunciation
- /tʃiːf/
- Rhymes: -iːf
Noun
- A leader or respected
elder in a tribe.
- They came to the chief to resolve their dispute.
- The head of an
organization.
- All firefighters report to the fire chief.
- A horizontal
band across the top of a
shield.
- 1889, Charles Norton Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry:
- When the Chief is Charged with any figure, in blazon it is said to be "On a Chief".
- 1889, Charles Norton Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry:
Translations
head of an organization
Derived terms
See also
Extensive Definition
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
- The Chief
- Tribal chief, the head of a tribal form of self-government
- Chief of the name, the head of a family or clan
- Paramount chief, a title for a * Chief Petty Officer, a noncommissioned officer or equivalent in many navies
- Chief of the boat, the senior enlisted sailor on a submarine in the US Navy
- Chief Engineer, the senior officer in the engineering department on a merchant vessel
- A Warrant Officer in the United States Army
Sports
- Robert Parish, retired NBA player nicknamed "The Chief"
- Wayne Allison, a football player nicknamed "Chief"
- Chiefs, formerly Waikato Chiefs, a rugby team in New Zealand
- Laval Chiefs, a hockey team in Quebec
- Rehoboth Chiefs, a college basketball team in Western Australia
- Kaizer Chiefs FC, a football club in South Africa
- Kansas City Chiefs, an American football team in Missouri
- Charlestown Chiefs, a fictional hockey team in the film Slap Shot
Aircraft
- Aeronca 50 Chief, an American light plane of the late 1930s
- Aeronca 11 Chief, a two-seat airplane entering production in 1945
Other meanings
- Chief (heraldry), a horizontal band on a coat of arms
- Chief (passenger train)
- Chiefs (TV miniseries), a 1983 TV miniseries starring Charlton Heston and Keith Carradine
- The Chief (newspaper)
- Chiefs, a novel by Stuart Woods
chief in Japanese: チーフ
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
A per se, Big Brother, ace, achievement, acmatic, alerion, all-absorbing, animal
charge, annulet,
anointed king, antecedent, anterior, apical, arch, argent, armorial bearings,
armory, arms, ascendant, at the head,
auditor, azure, bandeau, banner, bar, bar sinister, baton, bearings, bend, bend sinister, big cheese,
big wheel, big-timer, bigwig, billet, blazon, blazonry, boatswain, bordure, boss, broad arrow, bwana, cadency mark, canton, capital, captain, cardinal, central, champion, chaplet, charge, chef, chevron, chieftain, church dignitary,
coat of arms, cock,
cockatrice, commander, commanding, comptroller, consequential, consummate, controller, controlling, coronet, crescent, crest, cross, cross moline, crown, crowned head, crowning, dean, device, dictator, difference, differencing, dignitary, directing, directive, directorial, directory, dominant, doyen, doyenne, duce, dynast, eagle, ecclesiarch, effective, elder, electronics king, eminence, emperor, employer, ermine, ermines, erminites, erminois, escutcheon, essential, exordial, falcon, fess, fess point, field, file, first, first and foremost,
flanch, fleur-de-lis,
floor manager, floorman, floorwalker, focal, fore, foregoing, forehand, foreman, foremost, forward, fret, front, frontal, fugleman, fuhrer, fur, fusil, gaffer, ganger, garland, general, genius, goodman, governing, governor, grand duke, great, greatest, griffin, guiding, gules, guru, gyron, hatchment, head, heading, headman, headmost, hegemonic, hegemonistic, helmet, heraldic device, hierarch, high chief, high
priest, higher-up, highest, himself, honcho, honor point, husband, impalement, impaling, imperator, important, important person,
in ascendancy, in charge, in chief, in the ascendant, inescutcheon, initiatory, inspector, key, king, king-emperor, kingfish, kinglet, kingpin, label, laureate, lead, leader, leading, leading light, liege, liege lord, lion, lord, lord paramount, lozenge, luminary, magisterial, maiden, main, majesty, major, man, manager, managerial, managing, mantling, marshaling, martlet, mascle, master, master spirit, maximal, maximum, meridian, meridional, metal, momentous, monarch, monitor, motto, mullet, nombril point,
noncommissioned officer, nonpareil, notability, number one,
octofoil, or, ordinary, orle, outstanding, overlord, overman, overmost, overriding, overruling, overseer, padrone, pale, paly, paragon, paramount, paterfamilias, patriarch, patron, pean, personage, petty king,
pheon, potent, potentate, precedent, preceding, precessional, precursory, predominant, predominate, preeminent, prefatory, preliminary, preludial, prelusive, premier, preparatory, prepollent, preponderant, preponderate, prepotent, prevailing, prevalent, prevenient, prima donna,
primal, primary, prime, prince, prince consort, principal, prior, proctor, prodigy, proemial, prominent, propaedeutic, purpure, quarter, quartering, rabbi, ranking, regnant, regulating, regulative, regulatory, reigning, ringleader, rose, royal, royal personage, royalty, ruler, ruling, sable, sahib, saltire, scutcheon, seigneur, seignior, senior, shield, significant, sirdar, slave driver, sovereign, spread eagle,
star, starets, stellar, straw boss, subforeman, subordinary, summital, super, supereminent, superintendent, superior, superman, superstar, supervisor, supreme, surveyor, suzerain, taskmaster, teacher, telling, tenne, tetrarch, the greatest, the
most, tincture,
tip-top, top, top dog,
topflight, topmost, torse, tressure, ultimate, unicorn, upmost, uppermost, vair, vert, vertical, virtuoso, visitor, weighty, wreath, yale, zenithal