Definition of "banneret"

banneret

/ˈbænəɹɪt/

noun
plural bannerets
1. (law, historical) Clipping of knight banneret: a knight entitled to subinfeudate his estate and to lead men in battle under his own banner.
2. A small banner.
  Quotations
  […] yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burthen.
  c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii]
  His armor and his horse were black; there was no device on his shield and no banneret on his spear.
  1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 6, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998
3. (military, historical) A proposed but unadopted senior commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force equivalent to group captain.
  Quotations
  A list of new titles was manufactured as follows: Ensign, Lieutenant, Flight-Leader, Squadron-Leader, Reeve, Banneret, Fourth-Ardian, Third-Ardian, Second-Ardian, Ardian, Air Marshal. […O]ne may regret “Banneret”, which has a flavour and associations, more especially as the leader of a formation in the air went into battle flying a streamer which formed a rallying mark as did the banner of the knight for his vassals.
  1936, The Periodical, volumes 21-22, Oxford University Press, page 67
4. A civil officer in some Swiss cantons.