marshal

Meanings

Plural: marshals

Noun

• a law officer having duties similar to those of a sheriff in carrying out the judgments of a court of law
• (in some countries) a military officer of highest rank
• 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.
• 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.
• A person in charge of the ceremonial arrangement and management of a gathering.
• A federal lawman.
• An official responsible for signalling track conditions to drivers (through use of flags), extinguishing fires, removing damaged cars from the track, and sometimes providing emergency first aid.

Verb

• place in proper rank
  • "marshal the troops"
• arrange in logical order
  • "marshal facts or arguments"
• make ready for action or use
  • "marshal resources"
• lead ceremoniously, as in a procession
• To arrange (troops, etc.) in line for inspection or a parade.
• To arrange (facts, etc.) in some methodical order.
• To ceremoniously guide, conduct or usher.
• To gather data for transmission.
• 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.

Synonyms

encode, marshall, mobilise, mobilize, serialize, summon

Antonyms

decode, deserialize, unmarshal, unserialize