colony

[[t]kɒ̱ləni[/t]]

colonies

1) N-COUNT: usu supp N A colony is a country which is controlled by a more powerful country.

In France's former North African colonies, anti-French feeling is growing...

Puerto Rico, though it calls itself a Commonwealth, is really a self-governing American colony.

2) N-COUNT: usu with supp You can refer to a place where a particular group of people lives as a particular kind of colony.

In 1932, he established a school and artists' colony in Stone City, Iowa.

...a penal colony.

...industrial colonies.

Syn:

settlement

3) N-PLURAL: the N The colonies means all the countries that used to be British colonies. [BRIT, OLD-FASHIONED]

Many of our troops and officers were scattered around the world in the service of His Majesty in the colonies.

4) N-PLURAL The colonies means the 13 British colonies in North America which formed the original United States. [AM]

On the eve of the Revolution, the colonies produced thirty thousand tons of crude iron a year.

5) N-COUNT: oft N of n A colony of birds, insects, or animals is a group of them that live together.

The Shetlands are famed for their colonies of sea birds...

The caterpillars feed in large colonies.