precinct

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A subdivision or district of a city or town under the jurisdiction of or patrolled by a specific unit of its police force.
2. n. The police station situated in and having jurisdiction over such a district.
3. n. An election district of a city or town.
4. n. A place or enclosure marked off by definite limits, such as walls. Often used in the plural: the mysterious precincts of the old monastery.
5. n. A boundary: Hunting is not allowed within the precincts of the estate.
6. n. The neighborhood or surrounding area; the environs.
7. n. An area of thought or action; a province or domain. Often used in the plural: "It was in these spacious precincts that Dryden's imagination was most at home” ( Mark Van Doren).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The exterior line or boundary encompassing a place; bound; limit; boundary line.
2. n. An inclosed or bounded space; an inclosure or a space definitely marked off by boundaries; a peribolus.
3. n. A district within certain boundaries and under certain jurisdiction; a minor territorial or jurisdictional division: as, a police precinct; in several of the United States, the principal subdivision of the county, corresponding generally to the township in other States. These subdivisions in Nebraska and Oregon are called precincts. In California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, and Nevada they are called election precincts. The counties of Texas are each divided into four commissioners' precincts, also into from four to eight justices' precincts, and into from four to eleven election precincts. Some of the counties of Kentucky are divided into voting precincts. In colonial Massachusetts a precinct was a part set off from a town and made independent of it in respect to some matters of local administration, but not in respect to choosing a representative to the General Court.
4. n. A region; a tract.

Wiktionary

1. n. An enclosed space having defined limits, normally marked by walls.
2. n. UK A pedestrianized and uncovered shopping area.
3. n. US, law enforcement A subdivision of a city under the jurisdiction of a specific group of police; the police station situated in that district.
4. n. US A subdivision of a city or town for the purposes of voting and representation in city or town government. In cities, precincts may be grouped into wards.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The limit or exterior line encompassing a place; a boundary; a confine; limit of jurisdiction or authority; -- often in the plural.
2. n. A district within certain boundaries; a minor territorial or jurisdictional division
3. n. U.S. A parish or prescribed territory attached to a church, and taxed for its support.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a district of a city or town marked out for administrative purposes