Definitions

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

  • An island country in the southern Pacific Ocean southeast of Australia. Maori groups probably migrated to New Zealand from Polynesia by the late 1200s. Visited by Abel Tasman in 1642, the islands were more thoroughly explored by Capt. James Cook in three voyages between 1769 and 1777. The British established their first permanent settlement in 1840 and claimed the region as a crown colony. New Zealand received dominion status in 1907 and became fully independent in 1931. Wellington is the capital and Auckland the largest city.

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

  • A group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean.
  • (Bot.) The fiber itself.
  • (Bot.) a myrtaceous shrub (Leptospermum scoparium) of New Zealand and Australia, the leaves of which are used as a substitute for tea.

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

  • proper noun A country in Oceania, to the east of Australia. Official name: New Zealand. Abbreviation: NZ or Aotearoa
  • proper noun The islands of New Zealand, especially the North Island, South Island and nearby coastal islands.
  • proper noun The Realm of New Zealand, including the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau and the Ross Dependency.

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

  • noun North Island and South Island and adjacent small islands in the South Pacific
  • noun an independent country within the British Commonwealth; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1907; known for sheep and spectacular scenery

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Dutch Nieuw-Zeeland, "new Zeeland", after the Dutch settlement in Batavia, which in turn had been named after the Dutch province of Zeeland.

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Examples

  • Brisbane, Jan. 25: Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds must wait until Tuesday to learn the extent of possible disciplinary action resulting from his appearance with comedy duo Roy and HG on radio station Triple M on Friday night in which he called New Zealand player Brendon McCullum "a lump of s ..."

    dailyindia.com News Feed 2009

  • $4000 (Aus) by Cricket Australia (CA) over his radio interview in which he called New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum a 'lump of s. .t'.

    India eNews 2009

  • It is hard to know where to start: turning up drunk for Australia's one-day international against Bangladesh in Cardiff four years ago; several bar-room fracas; skipping training to go fishing; or a slurring commercial radio interview earlier this year in which he called New Zealand's Brendon McCullum

    Blogposts | guardian.co.uk 2009

  • Our people, the maori race, and the white man, try to make it together, to stomp out injustices in the place we call New Zealand, Aotearoa.

    Maori Claiming Land Back in New Zealand 2007

  • The wreck of the Greek-owned Rena was described as New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster even before the rear section of the ship, lashed by pounding seas, broke away overnight.

    www.startribune.com 2012

  • The wreck of the Greek-owned Rena was described as New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster even before the rear section of the ship, lashed by pounding seas, broke away overnight.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2012

  • The wreck of the Greek-owned Rena was described as New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster even before the rear section of the ship, lashed by pounding seas, broke away overnight.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2012

  • The Greek-owned Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef 22km from Tauranga Harbour on North Island on October 5, spewing heavy fuel oil into the seas, fouling pristine beaches and killing up to 20,000 sea birds in what has been described as New Zealand's worst martime environmental disaster.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2012

  • The wreck of the Greek-owned Rena was described as New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster even before the rear section of the ship, lashed by pounding seas, broke away overnight.

    News 2012

  • The Greek-owned Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef 22km from Tauranga Harbour on North Island on October 5, spewing heavy fuel oil into the seas, fouling pristine beaches and killing up to 20,000 sea birds in what has been described as New Zealand's worst martime environmental disaster.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2012

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