corporation

plural corporations

1. A body corporate, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members.

   With his twin notes, Mr. Musk waded directly into a fractious debate over the right way for corporations to bring workers back to the office during the coronavirus pandemic.

   2022 June 1, Ryan Mac, “Elon Musk to Workers: Spend 40 Hours in the Office, or Else”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 02 Jul 2022

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   That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

2. The municipal governing body of a borough or city.
3. historicalIn Fascist Italy, a joint association of employers' and workers' representatives.
4. datedhumorousslangA protruding belly.

   He was a big chap with a corporation already, and a flat face rather like Dora's, and he had a thin black moustache.

   1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 316

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   [The Rector], looming large in full canonicals, walking, as became a beneficed priest, under the canopy of a shovel-hat, with the dignity of an ample corporation, the embellishment of the squarest and vastest of black coats, and the support of the stoutest of gold-headed canes.

   1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Whitsuntide”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 127–128

   'You'd be surprised,' said Stanley, as though this were intensely interesting, 'at the number of chaps at the club who have got a corporation.'

   1918, Katherine Mansfield, ‘Prelude’, Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, page 91

   The sergeant was a goner. There was only one way to save him, and he threw himself on top, hurling the man to the ground. He lay covering his corporation with as much as his body and limbs would allow.

   2001, Jamie O’Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, London: Scribner, Part 2, Chapter 20, p. 620

   Synonyms: paunch

1. UKabbreviationellipsisgovernmentEllipsis of City of London Corporation.

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   In one respect at least the Corporation acts as the superior body: it imposes on the House of Commons a figure called the remembrancer: an official lobbyist who sits behind the Speaker's chair and ensures that, whatever our elected representatives might think, the City's rights and privileges are protected.

   2011 October 31, George Monbiot, “The medieval, unaccountable Corporation of London is ripe for protest”, in The Guardian, →ISSN