What is "rank and file"

Rank \Rank\, n. [OE. renk, reng, OF. renc, F. rang, fr. OHG. hring a circle, a circular row, G. ring. See Ring, and cf. Range, n. & v.]

1. A row or line; a range; an order; a tier; as, a rank of osiers.

   Many a mountain nigh Rising in lofty ranks, and loftier still.
   --Byron.

2. (Mil.) A line of soldiers ranged side by side; -- opposed to file. See 1st File, 1 (a) .

   Fierce, fiery warriors fought upon the clouds, In ranks and squadrons and right form of war.
   --Shak.

3. Grade of official standing, as in the army, navy, or nobility; as, the rank of general; the rank of admiral.

4. An aggregate of individuals classed together; a permanent social class; an order; a division; as, ranks and orders of men; the highest and the lowest ranks of men, or of other intelligent beings.

5. Degree of dignity, eminence, or excellence; position in civil or social life; station; degree; grade; as, a writer of the first rank; a lawyer of high rank.

   These all are virtues of a meaner rank.
   --Addison.

6. Elevated grade or standing; high degree; high social position; distinction; eminence; as, a man of rank.

   Rank and file. (a) (Mil.) The whole body of common soldiers, including also corporals. In a more extended sense, it includes sergeants also, excepting the noncommissioned staff.

File \File\ (f[imac]l), n. [F. file row (cf. Pr., Sp., Pg., & It. fila), LL. fila, fr. L. filum a thread. Cf. Enfilade, Filament, Fillet.]

1. An orderly succession; a line; a row; as:

   1. (Mil.) A row of soldiers ranged one behind another; -- in contradistinction to rank, which designates a row of soldiers standing abreast; a number consisting the depth of a body of troops, which, in the ordinary modern formation, consists of two men, the battalion standing two deep, or in two ranks.

      Note: The number of files in a company describes its width, as the number of ranks does its depth; thus, 100 men in ``fours deep'' would be spoken of as 25 files in 4 ranks.
      --Farrow.

   2. An orderly collection of papers, arranged in sequence or classified for preservation and reference; as, files of letters or of newspapers; this mail brings English files to the 15th instant.

   3. The line, wire, or other contrivance, by which papers are put and kept in order.

      It is upon a file with the duke's other letters.
      --Shak.

   4. A roll or list. ``A file of all the gentry.''
      --Shak.

2. Course of thought; thread of narration. [Obs.]

   Let me resume the file of my narration.
   --Sir H. Wotton.

3. (computers) a collection of data on a digital recording medium treated as a unit for the purpose of recording, reading, storage, or indexing; -- such a file is typically accessible by computer programs by the use of a file name. The data may be of any type codable digitally, such as simple ASCII-coded text, complex binary-coded data, or an executable program, or may be itself a collection of other files. File firing, the act of firing by file, or each file independently of others. File leader, the soldier at the front of any file, who covers and leads those in rear of him. File marching, the marching of a line two deep, when faced to the right or left, so that the front and rear rank march side by side. --Brande & C. Indian file, or Single file, a line of people marching one behind another; a single row. Also used adverbially; as, to march Indian file. On file, preserved in an orderly collection; recorded in some database. Rank and file.

   1. The body of soldiers constituting the mass of an army, including corporals and privates.
      --Wilhelm.

   2. Those who constitute the bulk or working members of a party, society, etc., in distinction from the leaders.

1590s, in reference to the horizontal and vertical lines of soldiers marching in formation; thence generalized to "common soldiers" (1796) and "common people, general body" of any group (1860).

n. 1 Common soldiers, as would be arrayed in a grid pattern with ranks and files. 2 (context idiomatic English) Those lacking any particular title or status; those having no station.

1. n. the ordinary members of an organization (such as the enlisted soldiers of an army); "the strike was supported by the union rank and file"; "he rose from the ranks to become a colonel" [syn: rank]

2. people who constitute the main body of any group

Rank and File was an American punk rock band established in 1981 in Austin, Texas by Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman, a pair of brothers who had been members of the seminal California band The Dils. The band were forerunners in combining the musical rawness and Do It Yourself punk aesthetic with the style and ambience of country and western music, helping to create a subgenre known as cowpunk. After releasing three albums, the band terminated in 1987.

Rank and file may refer to:

• A military term relating to the horizontal "ranks" (rows) and vertical "files" (columns) of individual foot-soldiers, exclusive of the officers
• Positions on a chess board in chess terminology
• A term derived from the above used to refer to enlisted rank troops, as opposed to the officers
• The individual members of a political organization or labor union, exclusive of its leadership
• Rank and file movement, a blanket term for informal, left-leaning, militant groups among British trade unionists, generally strenuously opposed to the union hierarchies and by them, and often facing expulsion
• Rank and File Movement, a militant movement which grew within the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers in the United States in 1934
• Rank and File (band), an American post-punk band
• A variation of Forty Thieves (card game)