See Also: EMPIRE Oil and Gas NL(finance)
empire(dictionary)
Second Empire(encyclopedia)
Oyo empire(encyclopedia)
empire(dictionary)
EMPIRE(law)
EMPIRE(finance)
Empire Co.(finance)
Byzantine Empire(encyclopedia)
Empire Airlines(tourism)

empire (iou)



empire noun & adjective. ME.
[Old & mod. French, earlier emperie, from Latin imperium rel. to imperator EMPEROR.]
A. noun.
I. Something under rule.
An extensive territory, esp. an aggregate of many States, under the ultimate authority of one person (an emperor or empress) or one sovereign State; colloq. a large group of companies controlled or owned by one company; a person's power or authority in an organization, esp. as represented by the number of his or her subordinates. ME.
F. Fitzgerald Siam was..building an empire out of the territories of Laos and Cambodia. Mail on Sunday His multi-million dollar empire all began in Uncle Robert's garage in Kansas City. Daily Telegraph The management appears to be top heavy,..caused by people reluctant to give up carefully nurtured empires. fig.: Shelley Scorn and despairthese are mine empire.
A sovereign State. Now rare or obsolete. M16.
II. Rulership.
Supreme and extensive political dominion, esp. that exercised by an emperor. LME.
Spectator We have clung to the rhetoric of empire long after we have lost..the ability to maintain its reality.
b. Absolute control; paramount influence. LME.
R. L. Stevenson Long after that death yell was still ringing in my brain, silence had re-established its empire.
The position or dignity of an emperor. Now rare. E16.
A government in which the head of State is called an emperor or empress. Freq. as the Empire below. E19.
b. attrib. or as adjective. (Of furniture, dress, etc.) of the style fashionable in France during the Empire (or the Second Empire); (of wine) from the British Commonwealth. M19.
O. Logan Your new but ugly little Empire bonnet.
Comb. & phrases: empire-builder (a) Hist. a person who added to the territory of the British Empire; a British overseas administrator; (b) a person who seeks to increase his or her authority or staff in an organization; empire-building the activity of an empire-builder; Empire City US New York; Empire Day Hist. the original name of Commonwealth Day; empire-line adjective (of a dress) having a high waist and a low neckline; Empire State US New York State; Empire State of the South US colloq. the American State of Georgia; Holy Roman Empire, Roman Empire: see ROMAN adjective; Second Empire the (period of) rule of Napoleon III as Emperor of the French, 1852-70; the Empire Hist. (a) the Holy Roman Empire; (b) the British Empire; (c) the (period of) rule of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of the French, 1804-15. the Flowery Empire: see FLOWERY adjective 1.