noun

• 1A high rank of officer in the RAF, above air vice-marshal and below air chief marshal.

  ‘The air marshal program - every air marshal - available air marshal is deployed.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘However, in order to disguise this distinction he was made an air marshal, to sit beside a full admiral and full general.’
  • ‘She married Jeremy Lee-Potter, a medical student and the son of an air marshal in 1957.’
  • ‘On promotion to air marshal, he served for a short time as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Logistics Command.’
  • ‘In September 1939 he was promoted acting air marshal and in April 1940 was appointed Commander in Chief Bomber Command.’
  • ‘A federal air marshal - one of thousands now at work since Sept. 11 - approaches, identifies himself, and tells the man to calm down.’
• 2mainly US An armed guard who travels incognito on certain commercial flights, trained to take action in the event of a hijack or other violent criminal action.

  ‘a plan to allow passengers to carry knives is being tabled amid protests from air marshals’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The US Department of Homeland Security requested the presence of air marshals on threatened flights in late December.’
  • ‘She's also busy developing standards for federal air marshals and flight deck officers so they can carry firearms in the cockpit.’
  • ‘I was glad to know that there is really an air marshal there, and they are not afraid to shoot somebody who says they have a bomb.’
  • ‘A federal air marshal told the pilot that the passenger's name resembled one on a terror watch list, and that he had been acting suspiciously.’
  • ‘The FAA is also believed to be considering broadening the use of armed air marshals to all internal flights in America.’