English

Noun

other rank ‎(plural other ranks)

1. (military, chiefly in the plural) A soldier who is not a commissioned officer.
   • 1925, Ford Madox Ford, No More Parades, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p. 301:

     He knew that Sergeant-Major Cowley wanted to get the Other Ranks out of the hut with that captain carrying on like that, and he did not see why the old N.C.O. should not have what he wanted.

   • 1928, Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War, Penguin 2010, p. 125:

     There were to be these raiders – Amon, myself and thirty ‘other ranks’ […].

   • 1975, Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory:

     Originating as an officers' style, this one was quickly embraced by Other Ranks as well.

   • 1992, AJ Deane-Drummond, Arrows of Fortune, p. 42:

     As I was wearing no badges of rank I was mistaken for an other rank.