Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
College
1.
A collection, body, or society of persons engaged in common pursuits, or having common duties and interests, and sometimes, by charter, peculiar rights and privileges;
as, a
. college
of heralds; a college
of electors; a college
of bishopsThe
college
of the cardinals. Shakespeare
Then they made
colleges
of sufferers; persons who, to secure their inheritance in the world to come, did cut off all their portion in this. Jer. Taylor.
2.
A society of scholars or friends of learning, incorporated for study or instruction, esp. in the higher branches of knowledge;
as, the
. colleges
of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and many American colleges
☞ In France and some other parts of continental Europe, college is used to include schools occupied with rudimentary studies, and receiving children as pupils.
3.
A building, or number of buildings, used by a college.
“The gate of Trinity College.” Macaulay.
4.
Fig.: A community.
[R.]
Thick as the
college
of the bees in May. Dryden.
College of justice
, a term applied in Scotland to the supreme civil courts and their principal officers.
– The sacred college
, the college or cardinals at Rome.
Webster 1828 Edition
College
COLLEGE
,Noun.
1.
In a general sense, a collection, assemblage or society of men, invested with certain powers and rights, performing certain duties, or engaged in some common employment, or pursuit.2.In a particular sense, an assembly for a political or ecclesiastical purpose as the college of Electors or their deputies at the diet in Ratisbon. So also, the college of princes, or their deputies; the college of cities, or deputies of the Imperial cities; the college of Cardinals, or sacred college. In Russia, the denomination, college, is given to councils of state, courts or assemblies of men intrusted with the administration of the government, and called Imperial college; the college of foreign affairs; the college of war; the admiralty college; the college of justice; the college of commerce; the medical college.
In Great Britain and the United States of America, a society of physicians is called a college. So also there are colleges of surgeons; and in Britain, a college of philosophy, a college of heralds, a college of justice, &c. Colleges of these kinds are usually incorporated or established by the supreme power of the state.
3.
An edifice appropriated to the use of students, who are acquiring the languages and sciences.4.
The society of persons engaged in the pursuits of literature, including the officers and students. Societies of this kind are incorporated and endowed with revenues.5.
In foreign universities, a public lecture.