Definition of Allegiance

1. Noun. The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action. "They felt no loyalty to a losing team"

Exact synonyms: Commitment, Dedication, Loyalty
Specialized synonyms: Communalism, Consecration, Devotion, Enlistment, Faith
Generic synonyms: Cooperation
Derivative terms: Allegiant, Commit, Dedicate

2. Noun. The loyalty that citizens owe to their country (or subjects to their sovereign).
Exact synonyms: Fealty
Generic synonyms: Loyalty, Trueness
Derivative terms: Allegiant

Definition of Allegiance

1. n. The tie or obligation, implied or expressed, which a subject owes to his sovereign or government; the duty of fidelity to one's king, government, or state.

Definition of Allegiance

1. Noun. Loyalty to some cause, nation or ruler. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Allegiance

1. [n -S]

Medical Definition of Allegiance

1. 1. The tie or obligation, implied or expressed, which a subject owes to his sovereign or government; the duty of fidelity to one's king, government, or state. 2. Devotion; loyalty; as, allegiance to science. Synonym: Loyalty, fealty. Allegiance, Loyalty. These words agree in expressing the general idea of fidelity and attachment to the "powers that be." Allegiance is an obligation to a ruling power. Loyalty is a feeling or sentiment towards such power. Allegiance may exist under any form of government, and, in a republic, we generally speak of allegiance to the government, to the state, etc. In well conducted monarchies, loyalty is a warm-hearted feeling of fidelity and obedience to the sovereign. It is personal in its nature; and hence we speak of the loyalty of a wife to her husband, not of her allegiance. In cases where we personify, loyalty is more commonly the word used; as, loyalty to the constitution; loyalty to the cause of virtue; loyalty to truth and religion, etc. "Hear me, recreant, on thine allegiance hear me!" (Shak) "So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found, . . . Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal." (Milton) Origin: OE. Alegeaunce; pref. A- + OF. Lige, liege. The meaning was influenced by L. Ligare to bind, and even by lex, legis, law. See Liege, Ligeance. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Allegiance

allegeance
allegeaunce
alleged
alleged(a)
allegedly
allegement
allegements
alleger
allegers
alleges
allegge
allegged
allegges
allegging
alleghanyite
allegiance (current term)
allegiances
allegiant
allegiantly
allegiants
allegiaunce
alleging
allegoric
allegorical
allegorically
allegoricalness
allegories
allegorise
allegorised
allegoriser

Literary usage of Allegiance

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political by John Joseph Lalor (1883)
"allegiance (ш US HISTORY). 1.1774-89. Until the opening of the American revolution, native or naturalized British subjects owed allegiance to the British ..."

2. United States Supreme Court Reports by Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, United States Supreme Court (1882)
"Can those any longer be denominated British 255*] subjects 'whose allegiance the King of Great Britain has solemnly renounced? I know of no test more solemn ..."

3. Commentaries on the Laws of England by William Blackstone, William Carey Jones (1915)
"Natural allegiance is such as is due from all men born within the king's ... 2 In 1868, by the Promissory Oaths Act, the former oaths of allegiance and ..."

4. A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental by David ( Hume (1898)
"To which we may add, that a man living under an absolute government, wou'd owe it no allegiance ; since, by its very nature, it depends not on consent. ..."

5. Commentaries on American Law by James Kent, John Melville Gould, Oliver Wendell Holmes (1901)
"42 * To create allegiance by birth, the party must be born, * 42 not only within the territory, but within the allegiance of the government. ..."

6. The Law and Custom of the Constitution by William Reynell Anson (1907)
"The Oath of allegiance. well to the official chief of Saxon times as to the ... allegiance. The counterpart to the Coronation Oath is the Oath of allegiance ..."

7. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann (1913)
"Civil allegiance.—By civil allegiance ie meant the duty of loyalty ana obedience which a person owes to the State of which he is a citizen. ..."

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