Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- The geographic and political units formerly under British control, including dominions, colonies, dependencies, trust territories, and protectorates. At the height of its power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the empire comprised about one quarter of the world's land area and population and encompassed territories on every continent, including the British Isles, British North America, British West Indies, British Guiana, British West Africa, British East Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun historical The
United Kingdom together with itsdominions ,colonies ,dependencies ,trust territories andprotectorates ; became theCommonwealth of Nations following theindependence of many of its constituentcountries
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a former empire consisting of Great Britain and all the territories under its control; reached its greatest extent at the end of World War I; it included the British Isles, British West Indies, Canada, British Guiana; British West Africa, British East Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand
Etymologies
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Examples
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McMahon, a career bootlicker, performed the old "sleight of hand" trick, fudging the words "frontier" and "border" to demarcate the line that divided the British Empire from the Chinese.
CounterPunch 2010
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McMahon, a career bootlicker, performed the old "sleight of hand" trick, fudging the words "frontier" and "border" to demarcate the line that divided the British Empire from the Chinese.
CounterPunch 2010
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McMahon, a career bootlicker, performed the old "sleight of hand" trick, fudging the words "frontier" and "border" to demarcate the line that divided the British Empire from the Chinese.
CounterPunch 2010
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That old organization called the British Empire, loose and decentrated -- and holding together because it was so -- had taken another step forward in the gathering of its strength into a compact force.
My Second Year of the War Frederick Palmer 1915
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Without it, we could never have been purged of our insensate selfishness; without it, the loose agglomeration of states, then called the British Empire, could never have been welded into the State; without it, the great events of that year would have been impossible, and the dominion of the English-speaking peoples must, ere this, have become no more than a matter of historical interest.
The Message 1912
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_Politically the British Empire is a clumsy collection of strange accidents.
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Eventually the mobilized military air force of the British Empire, that is to say, Captains Burke, Brooke-Popham, and Massy, Lieutenants
The War in the Air; Vol. 1 The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force Walter Alexander Raleigh 1891
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The lands called the British Empire belong to many races, and it is only by the sword and not by the Book of Peace or any pact of peace that those races can be kept from the ownership of their own countries.
The Crime Against Europe A Possible Outcome of the War of 1914 Roger Casement 1890
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Another example is the British Empire, which is a world empire and comprises a number of different nations.
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As well may you say that because the English Government is called the British Empire, it is only for Britons, and a Frenchman would not be allowed to reside at London; or the government of Alexander only for Russians, while no German would be allowed to tread its extensive soil.
An Apology for African Methodism Benjamin Tucker 1867
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