Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Nation"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Nation \Na"tion\, n. [F. nation, L. natio nation, race, orig., a
being born, fr. natus, p. p. of nasci, to be born, for
gnatus, gnasci, from the same root as E. kin. [root]44. See
{Kin} kindred, and cf. {Cognate}, {Natal}, {Native}.]
1. (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.
--Rev. vii. 9.
2. The body of inhabitants of a country, united under an
independent government of their own.
A nation is the unity of a people. --Coleridge.
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a
nation. --F. S. Key.
3. Family; lineage. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
4.
(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.
5. A great number; a great deal; -- by way of emphasis; as, a
nation of herbs. --Sterne.
{Five nations}. See under {Five}.
{Law of nations}. See {International law}, under
{International}, and {Law}.
Syn: people; race. See {People}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
nation
n 1: a politically organized body of people under a single
government; "the state has elected a new president";
"African nations"; "students who had come to the
nation's capitol"; "the country's largest manufacturer";
"an industrialized land" [syn: {state}, {country}, {land},
{commonwealth}, {res publica}, {body politic}]
2: the people who live in a nation or country; "a statement
that sums up the nation's mood"; "the news was announced
to the nation"; "the whole country worshipped him" [syn: {land},
{country}, {a people}]
3: a federation of tribes (especially native American tribes);
"the Shawnee nation"
4: United States prohibitionist who raided saloons and
destroyed bottles of liquor with a hatchet (1846-1911)
[syn: {Nation}, {Carry Nation}, {Carry Amelia Moore Nation}]
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