country

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A nation or state.
• noun The territory of a nation or state; land.
• noun The people of a nation or state; populace.
• noun The land of a person's birth or citizenship.
• noun A region, territory, or large tract of land distinguishable by features of topography, biology, or culture.
• noun An area or expanse outside cities and towns; a rural area.
• noun The people of a district who are eligible for jury service.
• noun A jury.
• noun Informal Country music.
• adjective Of, relating to, or typical of the country.
• adjective Of or relating to country music.
• idiom (in country) In Vietnam during the period of US military operations there.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A region; a district of indefinite extent present to the view or thought, being or considered as the locality of residence, travel, exploration, or other action, or of description: as, a new country; a wild country; a rugged country; an unexplored country; the countries of central Asia.
• noun The territory of a nation; an independent state, or a region once independent, and still distinct in name, population, or institutions, as England, Scotland, and Wales in Great Britain, the several states of the Austrian and German empires, etc.
• noun The rural parts of a region, as opposed to cities or towns.
• noun The place of one's nativity or citizenship; one's native soil; the land of one's nationality or allegiance by birth or adoption.
• noun The inhabitants of a country; the people; the public.
• noun Specifically In law, the public at large, as represented by a jury: as, a trial by the country; his plea concluded to the country (that is, it ended by requiring the submission of the issue to a jury).
• noun In law, any place other than a court: as, a deed in the country, as opposed to an alienation by record—that is, in court.
• noun In mining, the rock adjacent to the lode; the formation in which any mineral vein or deposit is inclosed. Sometimes called country-rock.
• noun Nautical, that part of an apartment on board ship used in common by all officers of the same mess: as, the ward-room country.
• Pertaining or peculiar to one's own country; national; native.
• Pertaining or belonging to the country or to the rural parts of a region; being or living in the country; rural; rustic: as, country roads: country customs; a country gentleman; country cousins; a country life; the country party, as opposed to the city party.
• Characteristic of the country or rural regions; hence, rustic; rude; unpolished: as, country manners.
• noun The parts of a cricket-field covered by the out-fielders; the long- or deep-field.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective Pertaining to the regions remote from a city; rural; rustic.
• adjective Destitute of refinement; rude; unpolished; rustic; not urbane.
• adjective Pertaining, or peculiar, to one's own country.
• noun A tract of land; a region; the territory of an independent nation; (as distinguished from any other region, and with a personal pronoun) the region of one's birth, permanent residence, or citizenship.
• noun Rural regions, as opposed to a city or town.
• noun The inhabitants or people of a state or a region; the populace; the public. Hence: (a) One's constituents. (b) The whole body of the electors of state.
• noun A jury, as representing the citizens of a country.
• noun The inhabitants of the district from which a jury is drawn.
• noun (Mining.) The rock through which a vein runs.
• noun See under Conclusion.
• noun to appeal to one's constituents; to stand trial before a jury.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective From the countryside or connected with it.
• adjective Of or connected to country music.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an area outside of cities and towns
• noun the territory occupied by a nation
• noun a particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography)
• noun the people who live in a nation or country
• noun a politically organized body of people under a single government