syndicate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An association of people or firms authorized to undertake a duty or transact specific business.
2. n. An association of people or firms formed to engage in an enterprise or promote a common interest.
3. n. A loose affiliation of gangsters in control of organized criminal activities.
4. n. An agency that sells articles, features, or photographs for publication in a number of newspapers or periodicals simultaneously.
5. n. A company consisting of a number of separate newspapers; a newspaper chain.
6. n. The office, position, or jurisdiction of a syndic or body of syndics.
7. v. To organize into or manage as a syndicate.
8. v. To sell shares in.
9. v. To sell (a comic strip or column, for example) through a syndicate for simultaneous publication in newspapers or periodicals.
10. v. To sell (a television series, for example) directly to independent stations.
11. v. To join together in a syndicate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To judge; censure.
2. n. A council or body of syndics; the office, state, or jurisdiction of a syndic.
3. n. An association of persons or corporations formed with the view of promoting some particular enterprise, discharging some trust, or the like; a combination.
4. To unite in a syndicate; associate: as, syndicated capitalists.
5. To effect by means of a syndicate, as a sale of property.

Wiktionary

1. n. A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group.
2. n. A similar group of gangsters engaged in organized crime.
3. n. A chain of newspapers, or an agency that distributes features to multiple newspapers.
4. v. intransitive To become a syndicate.
5. v. transitive To put under the control of a group acting as a unit.
6. v. transitive To release media content through a syndicate to be published or broadcast through multiple outlets.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The office or jurisdiction of a syndic; a council, or body of syndics.
2. n. An association of persons officially authorized to undertake some duty or to negotiate some business; also, an association of persons who combine to carry out, on their own account, a financial or industrial project.
3. n. A more or less organized association of criminals controlling some aspects of criminal activity, in a specific area or country-wide; -- used loosely as a synonym for organized crime or the mafia.
4. n. (Journalism) a commercial organization that purchases various journalistic items, such as articles, columns, or comic strips, from their individual creators, and resells them to newspapers or other periodicals for simultaneous publication over a wide area.
5. v. obsolete To judge; to censure.
6. v. To combine or form into, or manage as, a syndicate.
7. v. To acquire or control for or by, or to subject to the management of, a syndicate.
8. v. (Journalism) to purchase various journalistic items, such as articles, columns, or comic strips, from their individual creators, and resell them to numerous periodicals for simultaneous publication over a wide area.
9. v. To unite to form a syndicate.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. organize into or form a syndicate
2. n. a news agency that sells features or articles or photographs etc. to newspapers for simultaneous publication
3. v. sell articles, television programs, or photos to several publications or independent broadcasting stations
4. n. a loose affiliation of gangsters in charge of organized criminal activities
5. v. join together into a syndicate
6. n. an association of companies for some definite purpose