Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kind of candy: same as Gibraltar rock.
  • noun A kind of sugar-candy made in short thick sticks with rounded ends.

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

  • noun A strongly fortified town on the south coast of Spain, held by the British since 1704; hence, an impregnable stronghold.
  • noun A kind of candy sweetmeat, or a piece of it; -- called, in full, Gibraltar rock.

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

  • proper noun An overseas territory of the United Kingdom at the southern end of Iberia.
  • proper noun A strait connecting the Mediterranean to the Atlantic between Gibraltar and Morocco.

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

  • noun location of a colony of the United Kingdom on a limestone promontory at the southern tip of Spain; strategically important because it can control the entrance of ships into the Mediterranean; one of the Pillars of Hercules

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Arabic جبل طارق (Jabal Ţāriq), meaning Mountain of Tariq, who led the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, starting in 711. Replaced earlier Latin Mons Calpe ("Mount Calpe") for the land, and Ancient Greek Ηράκλειες Στήλε ("Pillars of Hercules") (Latin Columnae Herculis) for the strait.

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Examples

  • The Spanish people are continually being buoyed up with the pleasant fiction, that it is only _lent_ to its present proprietors; for in all documents relating to Gibraltar, or in all questions raised in the Spanish parliament touching that place, the British are referred to as being only "_in temporary possession of Gibraltar_."

    In Eastern Seas Or, the Commission of H.M.S. 'Iron Duke,' flag-ship in China, 1878-83 J. J. Smith

  • GIBRALTAR: The world-renowned fortress of Gibraltar was reached after some hours 'delay, and we were welcomed by sunshine and a June-like temperature.

    Travels in the Far East Ellen Mary Hayes Peck

  • GIBRALTAR (Reuters) - A Spanish cabinet minister visited Gibraltar for the first time in more than 300 years on Tuesday, and Madrid insisted his trip did not change its claim to the British territory.

    Reuters: Top News 2009

  • Gibraltar is famous for a couple of things, one namely being the ´Rock of Gibraltar´ - a huge limestone rock which towers over the territory, and takes up almost all of it!

    TravelPod.com Recent Updates 2008

  • One of the reasons why Hayti refused us even a lease of the harbor, which he calls her Gibraltar, was resentment at our national prejudice against the color of her citizens.

    Frederick Douglass The Colored Orator. 1895

  • At an address in Gibraltar used by both Red Star and Mina is a law firm that specializes in "virtual office services."

    Kyrgyz contracts fly under the radar Andrew Higgins 2010

  • At an address in Gibraltar used by both Red Star and Mina is a law firm that specializes in "virtual office services."

    Kyrgyz contracts fly under the radar Andrew Higgins 2010

  • At an address in Gibraltar used by both Red Star and Mina is a law firm that specializes in "virtual office services."

    Kyrgyz contracts fly under the radar Andrew Higgins 2010

  • Any objections to a story set in Gibraltar with a Romanian protagonist being podcast with a kiwi accent?

    BETTER LESSONS • by Aaron Polson 2010

  • Wednesday's announcement of a new contract for Mina, which is registered in Gibraltar, follows a bitter row between the White House and the U.S.

    Pentagon awards jet fuel contract to secretive company Andrew Higgins 2010

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