district

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A division of an area, as for administrative purposes.
2. n. A region or locality marked by a distinguishing feature: went to the lake district for their vacation.
3. v. To mark off or divide into districts.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A limited extent of country marked off for a special purpose, administrative, political, etc.; a circuit or territory within which may be exercised or to which are limited certain rights or powers; any portion of land or country, or any part of a city or town, which is defined by law or agreement. In British India and in various European countries a district is a subdivision of a province. In reference to political divisions in the United States, it generally imports that the inhabitants act together for some one specific purpose: as, a highway district; a school district; an election district (as a senate, assembly, or congressional district). In some States the term is applied to a class of towns. In South Carolina, during most of the period from 1768 to 1868, the chief subdivision of the State (excepting the coast region) was called a district, instead of a county as in the other States. In Virginia and West Virginia the chief subdivision of a county is called a magisterial district, with reference to the organization of local justice. In Tennessee it is called a civil district; in Kentucky, a justice's district; in Georgia, a militia district; in Maryland, an election district. In other States these divisions are called towns or townships. In colonial and provincial Massachusetts the district was a part set off from a town and made independent of it in respect to local administration, but not in respect to choosing a representative to the General Court. In the Methodist Episcopal Church the district is a territorial subdivision of a conference, comprising a number of churches and societies, under the charge of a presiding elder. A military district of a country is a division of a military territorial department. The federal territory containing the national capital is called the District of Columbia. Abbreviated dist.
2. n. A region in general; a territory within definite or indefinite limits: as, the district of the earth which lies between the tropics, or that which is north of a polar circle; the districts of Russia covered by forest.
3. n. Synonyms Division, quarter, locality, province, tract.
4. To divide into districts or limited portions of territory: as, in the United States, States are districted for the choice of certain officers; counties or towns are districted for the maintenance of schools, etc.
5. Stringent; rigorous; strict.
6. n. A subdivision of an English county with its own elective council charged chiefly with jurisdiction in sanitary matters. These districts are classed as ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ according as they lie within or without a borough or city.

Wiktionary

1. n. An administrative division of an area.
2. n. An area or region marked by some distinguishing feature.
3. v. transitive To divide into administrative or other districts.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. obsolete Rigorous; stringent; harsh.
2. n. (Feudal Law) The territory within which the lord has the power of coercing and punishing.
3. n. A division of territory; a defined portion of a state, town, or city, etc., made for administrative, electoral, or other purposes
4. n. Any portion of territory of undefined extent; a region; a country; a tract.
5. v. To divide into districts or limited portions of territory.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. regulate housing in; of certain areas of towns
2. n. a region marked off for administrative or other purposes