From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishchief of staffˌchief of ˈstaff noun (plural chiefs of staff) [countable] 1 PMHIGH POSITION OR RANKan officer of high rank in the army, navy etc who advises the officer in charge of a particular military group or operation2 BOHIGH POSITION OR RANKan official of high rank who advises the person in charge of an organization or government the White House chief of staff
Examples from the Corpus
chief of staff• He recently got a boost when Mr Mubarak replaced a rival, Salah Halabi, as army chief of staff.• In a trial in March, a jury exonerated Connolly of harassing his former chief of staff.• The heavy spending, which included $ 108,000 for John R.. Sasso, former chief of staff to Gov.• Gough was subsequently made commander of the Fifth Army, and Malcolm was his chief of staff.• He stepped down as White House chief of staff in 1994 after a series of White House snafus.• A mandate probably would not take effect until later, said David Moulton, chief of staff for Rep. 