the officers and the rank and file : OTHER RANKS, soldiers, NCOs, lower ranks; men, troops.
a speech appealing to the rank and file : THE (COMMON) PEOPLE, the proletariat, the masses, the populace, the commonality, the commonalty, the third estate, the plebeians; the hoi polloi, the rabble, the riff-raff, the great unwashed; informal the proles, the plebs.
2192; headword