Confederacy

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Confederacy \Con*fed"er*a*cy\, n. (Amer. Hist.)
     With the, the Confederate States of America.
     [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Confederacy \Con*fed"er*a*cy\, n.; pl. {Confederacies}. [From
     {Confederate}, a.]
     1. A league or compact between two or more persons, bodies of
        men, or states, for mutual support or common action;
        alliance.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The friendships of the world are oft
              Confederacies in vice or leagues of pleasure.
                                                    --Addison.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He hath heard of our confederacy.     --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Virginia promoted a confederacy.      --Bancroft.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The persons, bodies, states, or nations united by a
        league; a confederation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The Grecian common wealth, . . . the most heroic
              confederacy that ever existed.        --Harris.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Virgil has a whole confederacy against him.
                                                    --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law) A combination of two or more persons to commit an
        unlawful act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. See
        {Conspiracy}.
  
     Syn: League; compact; alliance; association; union;
          combination; confederation.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Confederacy
       n 1: the southern states that seceded from the United States in
            1861 [syn: {Confederate States}, {Confederate States of
            America}, {South}, {Dixie}, {Dixieland}]
       2: a union of political organizations [syn: {confederation}, {federation}]
       3: a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some
          harmful or illegal purpose [syn: {conspiracy}]
       4: a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an
          unlawful act [syn: {conspiracy}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  134 Moby Thesaurus words for "confederacy":
     Anschluss, Bund, Rochdale cooperative, addition, affiliation,
     agglomeration, aggregation, agreement, alignment, alliance,
     amalgamation, anschluss, artifice, assemblage, assimilation,
     association, axis, band, blend, blending, bloc, body, cabal,
     cahoots, cartel, centralization, coadunation, coalescence,
     coalition, colleagueship, college, collegialism, collegiality,
     collusion, combination, combine, combo, common market, complicity,
     complot, composition, comradeship, confederation, confraternity,
     congeries, conglomeration, conjugation, conjunction, connivance,
     consolidation, conspiracy, consumer cooperative, contrivance,
     contriving, cooperative, cooperative society, copartnership,
     copartnery, corps, council, counterplot, covin, credit union,
     customs union, deep-laid plot, economic community, ecumenism,
     embodiment, encompassment, engineering, enosis, federalization,
     federation, fellowship, finagling, finesse, frame-up, fraternalism,
     fraternity, fraternization, free trade area, freemasonry, fusion,
     game, gang, group, grouping, hookup, inclusion, incorporation,
     integration, intrigue, junction, junta, league, little game,
     machination, machine, maneuvering, manipulation, marriage, meld,
     melding, merger, mob, package, package deal, partnership, plot,
     plotting, political machine, rigging, ring, scheme, schemery,
     scheming, society, sodality, solidification, sorority, stratagem,
     syncretism, syndication, syneresis, synthesis, tie-in, tie-up,
     trick, underplot, unification, union, web of intrigue, wedding,
     wire-pulling
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CONFEDERACY, equity pleading. The fourth part of a bill in chancery usually 
  charges a confederacy; this is either general or special. 
       2. The first is by alleging a general charge of confederacy between the 
  defendants and other persons to injure or defraud the plaintiff. The common 
  form of the charge is, that the defendants, combining and confederating 
  together, to and with divers other persons as yet to the plaintiff unknown, 
  but whose names, when discovered, he prays may be inserted in the bill, and 
  they be made parties thereto, with proper and apt words to charge them with 
  the premises, in order to injure and oppress the plaintiff in ti e premises, 
  do absolutely refuse, &c. Mitf. Eq. Pl. by Jeremy, 40; Coop. Eq. Pl. 9 
  Story, Eq. Pl. Sec. 29; 1 Mont. Eq. Pl. 77; Barton, Suit in Eq. 33; Van 
  Heyth. Eq. Drafts, 4. 
       3. When it is intended to rely on a confederacy or combination as a 
  ground of equitable jurisdiction, the confederacy must be specially charged 
  to justify an assumption of jurisdiction. Mitf. Eq. Pl. by Jeremy, 41; 
  Story, Eq. Pl. Sec. 30. 
       4. A general allegation of confederacy is now considered as mere form. 
  Story, Eq. Pl. Sec. 29; 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 4169. 
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CONFEDERACY, intern. law. An agreement between two or more states or 
  nations, by which they unite for their mutual protection and good. This term 
  is applied to such agreement between two independent nations, but it is used 
  to signify the union of different states of the same nation, as the 
  confederacy of the states. 
       2. The original thirteen states, in 1781, adopted for their federal 
  government the "Articles of confederation and perpetual union between the 
  States," which continued in force until the present constitution of the 
  United States went into full operation, on the 30th day of April, 1789, when 
  president Washington was sworn into office. Vide 1 Story on the Const. B. 2, 
  c. 3 and 4. 
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CONFEDERACY, crim. law. An agreement between two or more persons to do an 
  unlawful act, or an act, which though not unlawful in itself, becomes so by 
  the confederacy. The technical term usually employed to signify this 
  offence, is conspiracy. (q.v.)