body politic

The people of a politically organized nation or state considered as a group.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

body politic

(Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the body politic the people of a nation or the nation itself considered as a political entity; the state

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bod′y pol′itic

a people regarded as forming a political body under an organized government.

[1425–75; late Middle English]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

body politic - 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"

country, nation, res publica, commonwealth, state, land

commonwealth country - any of the countries in the British Commonwealth

developing country - a country that is poor and whose citizens are mostly agricultural workers but that wants to become more advanced socially and economically

Dominion - one of the self-governing nations in the British Commonwealth

estate of the realm, the three estates, estate - a major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country (especially in the United Kingdom) and formerly possessing distinct political rights

foreign country - any state of which one is not a citizen; "working in a foreign country takes a bit of getting used to"

Reich - the German state

renegade state, rogue nation, rogue state - a state that does not respect other states in its international actions

suzerain - a state exercising a degree of dominion over a dependent state especially in its foreign affairs

sea power - a nation that possesses formidable naval strength

great power, major power, superpower, world power, power - a state powerful enough to influence events throughout the world

city state, city-state - a state consisting of a sovereign city

ally - a friendly nation

political entity, political unit - a unit with political responsibilities

body politic

noun

An organized geopolitical unit:

country, land, nation, polity, state.

Translations

body politic

n (frm) the body politic → lo Stato

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic.

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In a well- regulated body politic this natural desire on the part of a spirited young gentleman so highly connected would be speedily recognized, but somehow William Buffy found when he came in that these were not times in which he could manage that little matter either, and this was the second indication Sir Leicester Dedlock had conveyed to him that the country was going to pieces.

View in context

But throughout creation Nature has confined the vital principle within a narrow space, in order to concentrate its power; and so it is with the body politic. I will illustrate this thought of mine by examples.

View in context

Whosoever has observed that sedate and clerical bird, the rook, may perhaps have noticed that when he wings his way homeward towards nightfall, in a sedate and clerical company, two rooks will suddenly detach themselves from the rest, will retrace their flight for some distance, and will there poise and linger; conveying to mere men the fancy that it is of some occult importance to the body politic, that this artful couple should pretend to have renounced connection with it.

View in context

One of these remarkable incidents is the execution of that instrument of government by which they formed themselves into a body politic, the day after their arrival upon the coast, and previous to their first landing.

View in context

Though its consumption and with it, the samovar, or self-boiler, a metal urnlike contraption fashioned out of silver, brass, copper, or iron, took hold of the Russian body politic only in the 19th century, the practice and the object quickly became central to the nation's identity, even twinned icons of Russianness.

Tea Time in America

He covers the communicative viewpoint: photography, frontality, and multiplicity during the 1800s; the beholder in motion: kinetic viewership; and the body physical, the body politic: incorporated viewership during the 1960s.

The Place of the Viewer: The Embodied Beholder in the History of Art, 1764-1968

LAHORE -- Asking herself what is a home, Aisha Farooqui considers Pakistan as her grand home and wants to hug it as it were a person, in an attempt to heal all the wounds it had suffered to its body politic during her absence from the country.

Loving Pakistan and defending it on diplomatic front

Fineza, in her order, said the condonation doctrine only applied to a 'public officer who is elected to a different position provided that it is shown that the body politic (voters) electing the person to another office is the same.'

Dismissal of Cebu lawmaker upheld

Dimon said he "strongly" agrees with the statement and his "heart goes out to the impacted families," adding, ""We need to fix our immigration problems - it's tearing apart our body politic and damaging our economy ...

JPMorgan's Dimon speaks against Trump policy of separating families, CNBC says

IANS Panaji The Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi was different from the"undeclared emergency"of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is a slow poison injected into the body politic of India, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said on Wednesday.

Modi's 'emergency' a slow poison: Yashwant Sinha

Once the far-left take hold as they are doing in Britain today all standards fall, all logic goes and the entire body politic begins to fall apart.

Labour has sunk so low