Definitions

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

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of a particular place.
  • adjective Of or relating to a city, town, or district rather than a larger area.
  • adjective Not broad or general; not widespread.
  • adjective Of or affecting a specific part of the body.
  • adjective Making all possible or scheduled stops on a route; not express.
  • noun A public conveyance that makes several intermediate stops before the final destination is reached.
  • noun A local chapter or branch of an organization, especially of a labor union.
  • noun A local anesthetic.
  • noun Informal A person from a particular locality.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In Scots law: To apportion (an increase of the stipend of a minister of the established church) among the different heritors or landholders.
  • To lay the charge of such a stipend on or upon (a landholder or his land).
  • Relating to place or position in space; of or pertaining to situation or locality in general.
  • Of or pertaining to a particular place; relating to a particular place or to particular places, generally implying more than mere position or situation: as, local considerations; local knowledge; a local newspaper; a local item in a newspaper; also, limited to a certain spot or region; circumscribed: as, local laws, customs, or prejudices; a local disease or remedy.
  • In grammar, relating to place or situation: as, a local adverb (as here, there, etc.).
  • In mathematics, relating to or concerning a locus.
  • In law, an action which must be brought in the particular country where the cause of action arose, such as an action to recover lands.
  • In astronomy, attraction due to irregularities in the density or form of the earth's crust, which causes gravity at a station to deviate from its normal direction.
  • An English statute of 1888 (51 and 52 Vict., c. 41), initiating a system for the local self-government of the various counties of England and Wales (or in some cases divisions of a county), and of a large number of boroughs (and in the case of London of a district consisting of parts of three counties), and organizing in each a government under the control of its people, for municipal purposes. Its chief feature is the transfer from departments of the imperial government, to a county council in each, of the regulation of local affairs, such as highways, health, education, etc.
  • In England, a dissenting clergyman who preaches at different places.
  • noun A local item in a newspaper.
  • noun In telegraphy: A local-circuit battery.
  • noun The circuit itself, including everything belonging to the current in an office or station except the line-wire and the instruments included in the line-circuit.
  • noun A local train; an accommodation train which stops at all stations.
  • noun A local examination: as, the university locals.

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

  • noun (Railroad), U.S. A train which receives and deposits passengers or freight along the line of the road; a train for the accommodation of a certain district.
  • noun U.S. In newspaper cant, an item of news relating to the place where the paper is published.
  • noun A train or bus which stops at all stations along a line, as contrasted with an express, which stops only at certain stations designated as express stops.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a particular place, or to a definite region or portion of space; restricted to one place or region.
  • adjective (Law) actions such as must be brought in a particular county, where the cause arises; -- distinguished from transitory actions.
  • adjective (Med.) a disease or ailment confined to a particular part or organ, and not directly affecting the system.
  • adjective (Magnetism) an attraction near a compass, causing its needle to deviate from its proper direction, especially on shipboard.
  • adjective (Teleg.) the battery which actuates the recording instruments of a telegraphic station, as distinguished from the battery furnishing a current for the line.
  • adjective (Teleg.) the circuit of the local battery.
  • adjective (Paint.), (Literature) Peculiarities of the place and its inhabitants where the scene of an action or story is laid.
  • adjective the right or obligation of determining by popular vote within certain districts, as in each county, city, or town, whether the sale of alcoholic beverages within the district shall be allowed.

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

  • adjective From or in a nearby location.
  • adjective computing Having limited scope (either lexical or dynamic); only being accessible within a certain portion of a program.
  • adjective mathematics, not comparable, of a condition or state Applying to each point in a space rather than the space as a whole.
  • adjective medicine Of or pertaining to a restricted part of an organism.
  • adjective Descended from an indigenous population.
  • noun A person who lives nearby.
  • noun A branch of a nationwide organization such as a trade union.
  • noun rail transport A train that stops at all, or almost all, stations between its origin and destination, including very small ones.
  • noun UK One's nearest or regularly frequented public house or bar.
  • noun programming A locally scoped identifier.
  • noun US, slang, journalism An item of news relating to the place where the newspaper is published.

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

  • adjective affecting only a restricted part or area of the body
  • adjective relating to or applicable to or concerned with the administration of a city or town or district rather than a larger area
  • adjective of or belonging to or characteristic of a particular locality or neighborhood

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin locālis, from Latin locus, place.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

(adjective) From Old French local, from Late Latin localis ("belonging to a place"), from Latin locus ("a place").

Support

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Examples

  • How to go local• Support local farmers by shopping at a farmers market, or buy a share in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group, a community of individuals who pledge to support a farm operation so growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production.

    With summer here, consider eating more locally grown foods 2009

  • How to go local• Support local farmers by shopping at a farmers market, or buy a share in a Community Supported Agriculture CSA group, a community of individuals who pledge to support a farm operation so growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production.

    With summer here, consider eating more locally grown foods 2009

  • This means, that when I want to push my local repository changes to the remote server, I can execute the following instead: local$ git push origin master

    Aaron Toponce 2008

  • local content requirements (say, 30-50% of the investment) are legal, and legitimate, and can help build up the local infrastructure and industry;

    ColoradoPols.com - Front Page Sir Robin 2009

  • At this point, we need a precise definition of the term local extinction, as distinct from total extinction of a species or subspecies.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

  • At this point, we need a precise definition of the term local extinction, as distinct from total extinction of a species or subspecies.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

  • It's a move that would make a nonsense of the term "local radio" - and what a time to announce such a decision, when the BBC is about to hold its annual Gillard Awards, to celebrate all that is best in local broadcasting.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Joan Bakewell 2011

  • It's a move that would make a nonsense of the term "local radio" - and what a time to announce such a decision, when the BBC is about to hold its annual Gillard Awards, to celebrate all that is best in local broadcasting.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Joan Bakewell 2011

  • Because we have become such a global culture, and because the American media tends to value theatrical work primarily if it is connected to New York or to London, the term "local" has always been a derogatory one in the regional theater.

    Carey Perloff: Staying Local With Tales Of The City Carey Perloff 2011

  • Because we have become such a global culture, and because the American media tends to value theatrical work primarily if it is connected to New York or to London, the term "local" has always been a derogatory one in the regional theater.

    Carey Perloff: Staying Local With Tales Of The City Carey Perloff 2011

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