half-colonel

English

Noun

half-colonel (plural half-colonels)

1. (colloquial, UK) lieutenant colonel
   • 1965, Olivia Manning, Friends and Heroes (The Balkan Trilogy; 3), Bath: Chivers, page 895 (in series):

     'Yep. Lieutenant one day; major by the end of the week: lieutenant-colonel the week after. That's what it's like.' He snuffed down his nose in self-contempt. 'The office in Cairo is full of bogus half-colonels like me.'

Further reading

• Lieutenant colonel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia