01 n. A collection, body, or society of persons engaged in common pursuits, or having common duties and interests, and sometimes, by charter, pec…
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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 bishops.“The college of the cardinals.” — Shak.“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.
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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.
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3.
A building, or number of buildings, used by a college.
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4.
Fig.: A community.[R.]“Thick as the college of the bees in May.” — Dryden.
Phrases & compounds
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.