6. Estate, possession. [Obs.] Daniel.
Your state, my lord, again in yours.
Massinger. 7. A person of high rank. [Obs.] Latimer.
8. Any body of men united by profession, or constituting a community of a particular character; as, the
civil and ecclesiastical states, or the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons, in Great Britain. Cf.
Estate, n., 6.
9. The principal persons in a government.
The bold design
Pleased highly those infernal states.
Milton. 10. The bodies that constitute the legislature of a country; as, the States-general of Holland.
11. A form of government which is not monarchial, as a republic. [Obs.]
Well monarchies may own religion's name,
But states are atheists in their very fame.
Dryden. 12. A political body, or body politic; the whole body of people who are united one government, whatever
may be the form of the government; a nation.
Municipal law is a rule of conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state.
Blackstone.
The Puritans in the reign of Mary, driven from their homes, sought an asylum in Geneva, where they
found a state without a king, and a church without a bishop.
R. Choate. 13. In the United States, one of the commonwealth, or bodies politic, the people of which make up the
body of the nation, and which, under the national constitution, stands in certain specified relations with
the national government, and are invested, as commonwealth, with full power in their several spheres
over all matters not expressly inhibited.
The term State, in its technical sense, is used in distinction from the federal system, i. e., the government
of the United States.
14. Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis
between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme. [Obs.]
When state is joined with another word, or used adjectively, it denotes public, or what belongs to the
community or body politic, or to the government; also, what belongs to the States severally in the American
Union; as, state affairs; state policy; State laws of Iowa.
Nascent state. (Chem.) See under Nascent. — Secretary of state. See Secretary, n., 3. —
State bargea royal barge, or a barge belonging to a government. — State bed, an elaborately carved
or decorated bed. — State carriage, a highly decorated carriage for officials going in state, or taking
part in public processions. — State paper, an official paper relating to the interests or government of
a state. Jay. — State prison, a public prison or penitentiary; — called also State's prison. — State
prisoner, one is confinement, or under arrest, for a political offense. — State rights, or States' rights,
the rights of the several independent States, as distinguished from the rights of the Federal government.
It has been a question as to what rights have been vested in the general government. [U.S.] — State's
evidence. See Probator, 2, and under Evidence. — State sword, a sword used on state occasions,
being borne before a sovereign by an attendant of high rank. — State trial, a trial of a person for a
political offense. — States of the Church. See under Ecclesiastical.
