Territory

4 definitions found

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

  Territory \Ter"ri*to*ry\, n.; pl. {Territories}. [L.
     territorium, from terra the earth: cf. F. territoire. See
     {Terrace}.]
     1. A large extent or tract of land; a region; a country; a
        district.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              He looked, and saw wide territory spread
              Before him -- towns, and rural works between.
                                                    --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The extent of land belonging to, or under the dominion of,
        a prince, state, or other form of government; often, a
        tract of land lying at a distance from the parent country
        or from the seat of government; as, the territory of a
        State; the territories of the East India Company.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. In the United States, a portion of the country not
        included within the limits of any State, and not yet
        admitted as a State into the Union, but organized with a
        separate legislature, under a Territorial governor and
        other officers appointed by the President and Senate of
        the United States. In Canada, a similarly organized
        portion of the country not yet formed into a Province.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  territory
       n 1: a region marked off for administrative or other purposes
            [syn: {district}, {territorial dominion}, {dominion}]
       2: an area of knowledge or interest; "his questions covered a
          lot of territory"
       3: the geographical area under the jurisdiction of a sovereign
          state; "American troops were stationed on Japanese soil"
          [syn: {soil}]

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

  190 Moby Thesaurus words for "territory":
     Kreis, Lebensraum, acres, air space, airspace, alluvion, alluvium,
     ally, ambit, arable land, archbishopric, archdiocese, archduchy,
     archdukedom, area, arrondissement, back country, bailiwick, belt,
     bishopric, body politic, borough, buffer state, canton,
     captive nation, champaign, chieftaincy, chieftainry, city,
     city-state, clay, clear space, clearance, clearing, clod, colony,
     commonweal, commonwealth, commune, confines,
     congressional district, constablewick, constituency,
     continental shelf, corridor, country, county, crust, demesne,
     departement, department, desert, diocese, dirt, distant prospect,
     district, division, domain, dominion, dry land, duchy, dukedom,
     dust, earldom, earth, electoral district, electorate, empery,
     empire, empty view, environs, footing, free city, freehold, glade,
     glebe, government, grand duchy, grassland, ground, hamlet,
     heartland, hinterland, hundred, kingdom, land, landholdings,
     lithosphere, living space, magistracy, mandant, mandate,
     mandated territory, mandatee, mandatory, marginal land, marl,
     metropolis, metropolitan area, milieu, mold, nation, nationality,
     neighborhood, oblast, offshore rights, okrug, open country,
     open space, orbit, outback, parish, part, parts, patch, place,
     plain, polis, polity, possession, power, prairie, precinct,
     precincts, premises, principality, principate, protectorate,
     province, puppet government, puppet regime, purlieu, purlieus,
     quarter, real estate, real property, realm, region, regolith,
     republic, riding, salient, satellite, section, sector, seneschalty,
     settlement, sheriffalty, sheriffwick, shire, shrievalty, sod, soil,
     soke, sovereign nation, space, sphere, sphere of influence, stake,
     stamping ground, state, steppe, subaerial deposit, subsoil,
     sultanate, superpower, terra, terra firma, terrain, the country,
     three-mile limit, toparchia, toparchy, topsoil, town, township,
     tract, turf, twelve-mile limit, vantage, vicinage, vicinity,
     village, walk, wapentake, ward, wide-open spaces, wilderness,
     woodland, zone
  
  

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

  TERRITORY. Apart of a country, separated from the rest, and subject to a 
  particular jurisdiction. The word is derived from terreo, and is so called 
  because the magistrate within his jurisdiction has the power of inspiring a 
  salutary fear. Dictum cat ab eo quod magistratus intra fines ejus terrendi 
  jus habet. Henrion de Pansy, Auth. Judiciare, 98. In speaking of the 
  ecclesiastical jurisdictions, Francis Duaren observes, that the 
  ecclesiastics are said not to have territory, nor the power of arrest or 
  removal, and are not unlike the Roman magistrates of whom Gellius says 
  vocationem habebant non prehensionem. De Sacris Eccl. Minist. lib. 1, cap. 
  4. In the sense it is used in the constitution of the United States, it 
  signifies a portion of the country subject to and belonging to the United 
  States, which is not within the boundary of any of them. 
       2. The constitution of the United States, art. 4, s. 3, provides, that 
  "the congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and 
  regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States; 
  and nothing in this constitution shall be construed, so as to preclude the 
  claims of the United States or of any state." 
       3. Congress possesses the power to erect territorial governments within 
  the territory of the United States; the power of congress over such 
  territory is exclusive and universal, and their legislation is subject to no 
  control, unless in the case of ceded territory, as far as it may be affected 
  by stipulations in the cessions, or by the ordinance of 1787, 3 Story's L. 
  U. S. 2073, under which any part of it has been settled. Story on the Const. 
  Sec. 1322; Rawle on the Const: 237; 1 Kent's Com. 243, 359; 1 Pet. S. C. 
  Rep. 511, 542, 517. 
       4. The only organized territories of the United States are Oregon, 
  Minnesota, New Mexico and Utah. Vide Courts of the United States.