CONFEDERACY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Confederacy

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/kənfˈɛdərəsi/ /kənfˈɛdrəsi/ Listen

noun

Confederacy n. (pl. confederacies)

A league or compact between two or more persons, bodies of men, or states, for mutual support or common action; alliance. "The friendships of the world are oft Confederacies in vice or leagues of pleasure." "He hath heard of our confederacy." "Virginia promoted a confederacy."

The persons, bodies, states, or nations united by a league; a confederation. "The Grecian common wealth,... the most heroic confederacy that ever existed." "Virgil has a whole confederacy against him."

(Law) A combination of two or more persons to commit an unlawful act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. See Conspiracy.

Synonyms: League; compact; alliance; association; union; combination; confederation.

Confederacy n. (Amer. Hist.) With the, the Confederate States of America.

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Etymology of 'Confederacy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Confederacy" Quotes from Famous Books

... Boleyn—Queen Elizabeth—had, during her whole lifetime, to contend against rebels who held Mary Stuart to be the legitimate successor; and it was Queen Elizabeth who had always to remain armed against a confederacy of enemies who, encouraged by the Pope, made war upon the 'heretic' ...

— Shakspere And Montaigne • Jacob Feis

... each member of the confederacy openly proclaimed his revolt against the common enemy, and took up ...

— The Borgias - Celebrated Crimes • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... Francis, reported to him at the same time that the chiefs of the Assembly were proposing to pass votes suspending the "king from his functions, and to separate the queen from him on the ground that an impeachment was to be presented against both, as having solicited the late emperor to form a confederacy among the great powers of Europe in favor of the royal prerogative." The queen was, in fact, now, as always, more the object of their hatred than her husband, and toward the end of March a reconciliation of all her enemies took ...

— The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France • Charles Duke Yonge

... ours, may not you lose the good-will which you owe to the fear of us? Lose it you certainly will, if you mean again to exhibit the temper of which you gave a specimen when, for a short time, you led the confederacy against the Persian. For the institutions under which you live are incompatible with those of foreign states; and further, when any of you goes abroad, he respects neither these nor any other ...

— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece • Various

... he can readily explain. So is a devastating flood, or a widespread pestilence. The events which narrow-minded mudsills are apt to look upon as calamitous, are only "blessings in disguise" to every supporter and friend of the late "Confederacy." ...

— Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field • Thomas W. Knox

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