NATION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Nation

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/nˈeɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Nation n.

(Ethnol.) A part, or division, of the people of the earth, distinguished from the rest by common descent, language, or institutions; a race; a stock. "All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues."

The body of inhabitants of a country, united under an independent government of their own. "A nation is the unity of a people." "Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation."

Family; lineage. (Obs.)

(a)

One of the divisions of university students in a classification according to nativity, formerly common in Europe.

(b)

(Scotch Universities) One of the four divisions (named from the parts of Scotland) in which students were classified according to their nativity.

A great number; a great deal; by way of emphasis; as, a nation of herbs.

Five nations. See under Five.

Law of nations. See International law, under International, and Law.

Synonyms: people; race. See People.

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Etymology of 'Nation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nation" Quotes from Famous Books

... to Boston, and during the weeks of my work on my novel, I pondered the significance of the spiritual change which had swept over the whole nation—but above all others the problem of my father's desperate attempt to retrieve his fortunes engaged my sympathy. "Unless he gets a crop this year," I reported to my brother—"he is going to need help. It fills me with horror to think of those old people ...

— A Son of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland

... monstrous nature, that so often renewed its remembrance amongst men of distant lands, in Egyptian or Ethiopian marble? Whence came her wrath against Thebes? This wrath, how durst it tower so high as to measure itself against the enmity of a nation? This wrath, how came it to sink so low as to collapse at the echo of a word from a friendless stranger? Mysterious again is the blind collusion of this unhappy stranger with the dark decrees of fate. ...

— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... dialect and of a territory has led to the application of the term nation to many Indian tribes, notwithstanding the fewness of the people in each. Tribe and nation, however, are not strict equivalents. A nation does not arise, under gentile institutions, until the tribes united under the same government have coalesced ...

— Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines • Lewis H. Morgan

... not, and ye will take Benjamin also, all these things are against me." I could not sit still in this condition, but kept walking from one place to another. And as I was going along, my heart was even overwhelmed with the thoughts of my condition, and that I should have children, and a nation which I knew not, ruled over them. Whereupon I earnestly entreated the Lord, that He would consider my low estate, and show me a token for good, and if it were His blessed will, some sign and hope of some ...

— Captivity and Restoration • Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

... in the shops, one hears and recognizes signs. They are signs which might not be clear to one who has not spent years in looking on with interested eyes. But I have watched too long to see only the surface of things. The nation is waiting ...

— The Head of the House of Coombe • Frances Hodgson Burnett

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