England

plural Englands

1. uncountableusuallyThe largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom; established in southern Britain by Aethelstan of Wessex in 927.

   Just close your eyes and think of England.

   5 more examples

   Holonyms: Great Britain, Britain < United Kingdom, UK < Earth, World

   We thoroughly enjoyed our vacation in Britain. We visited England, Wales, and Scotland.

   Gaunt ...This royall throne of Kings, this sceptred Ile, This earth of maiesty, this seate of Mars, This other Eden, demy Paradice, This fortresse built by Nature for her selfe, Against infection and the hand of warre, This happy breede of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the siluer sea, Which serues it in the office of a wall, Or as moate defensiue to a house, Against the enuie of lesse happier lands. This blessed plot, this earth, this realme, this England... Is now leasde out... That England that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shamefull conquest of it selfe...

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England’s pleasant pastures seen?... I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England’s green & pleasant Land.

   1804, William Blake, Milton, Vol. I, Preface

   What is England? She is Elizabeth... To live alone, to go alone, to reign alone, to be alone,—such is Elizabeth, such is England... England has two books: one which she has made, the other which has made her,—Shakespeare and the Bible. These two books do not agree together... Shakespeare thinks, Shakespeare dreams, Shakespeare doubts... Moreover, Shakespeare invents.

   1864, Victor Hugo, chapter 6, in Amédée Baillot, transl., William Shakespeare

2. historicaluncountableusuallyThe territory of the Angles and (later) Anglo-Saxons in Britain at any given time before the founding of the Kingdom of England, or the territory of the English people at any given time, in either the Kingdom of England or the United Kingdom.
3. archaichistoricaluncountableusuallylawSynonym of England and Wales.

   Synonyms: England and Wales

4. datedproscribedsometimesuncountableusuallySynonym of Great Britain or United Kingdom.

   England expects that every man will do his duty.

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   There is a very near analogy between the position of the President of the United States and that of the Prime Minister of England, and both are paid at much the same rate — the income of a second-class professional man.

   1882, T. E. Kebbel, Selected Speeches of the Late Right Hon. the Earl of Beaconsfield, volume 2, page 495

   Another twenty years along the present line of development, and India will be a peasant republic linked with England only by voluntary alliance.

   1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn

   The partition of Czechoslovakia under pressure from England and France amounts to the complete surrender of the Western Democracies to the Nazi threat of force.

   1948, Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm, page 303

   Synonyms: Great Britain or United Kingdom

5. uncountableusuallyA habitational surname from Old English.
6. uncountableusuallyA city in Lonoke County, Arkansas, United States.