Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A social gathering especially for pleasure or amusement.
  • noun A group of people who have gathered to participate in an activity.
  • noun A group of soldiers selected for a duty or mission.
  • noun An established political group organized to promote and support its principles and candidates for public office.
  • noun A person or group involved in an enterprise; a participant or accessory.
  • noun Law A person or entity that participates in a transaction, makes a contract, or is involved in a lawsuit as a litigant.
  • noun A subscriber to a telephone party line.
  • noun A person using a telephone.
  • noun A person.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or participating in an established political organization.
  • adjective Suitable for use at a social gathering.
  • adjective Characteristic of a pleasurable social gathering.
  • intransitive verb To celebrate or carouse at a party or similar gathering.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A part; a portion; a division.
  • noun Part; side.
  • noun A company or number of persons ranged on one side, or united in opinion or design, in opposition to others in the community; those who favor or are united to promote certain views or opinions: as, the Liberal party; the Democratic party; the party of moral ideas.
  • noun Hence Side; cause.
  • noun A company or band of persons collected or gathered together for some particular purpose; especially, a select company invited to be present and participate in some form of amusement or entertainment: as, a pleasure-party; a dinner-party; a theater-party.
  • noun A detached part of a larger body or company; specifically (military), a detachment or small number of troops sent on a special service, as to intercept an enemy's convoy,to reconnoiter, to seek forage.
  • noun In law: One of the lit-igants in a legal proceeding; a plaintiff or de-fendant in a suit: sometimes used collectively to include all the persons named on one side.
  • noun One expressly concerned or interested in an affair: as, a party to a contract or an agreement; the party of the first part.
  • noun One who is privy to a transaction or affair, or connected with it in any way; one who is more or less of an accomplice or accessory.
  • noun A person; a particular person, as distinct from and opposed to any other; a person under special consideration; a person in general; an individual: as, an old party of my acquaintance.
  • noun Compact; treaty.
  • noun Synonyms Combination, Faction, etc. (see cabal), league, set, clique, alliance, coalition.
  • Partial; manifesting partiality.
  • Of or pertaining to a faction or party; partizan: as, party lines; party issues.
  • noun Same as parti.
  • Divided; in part.
  • Specifically In heraldry, divided into parts, usually equal: said of the field, especially when the division is in the direction of one of the ordinaries.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Her.) Parted or divided, as in the direction or form of one of the ordinaries.
  • adjective Partial; favoring one party; partisan.
  • adjective See under Charter.
  • noun obsolete A part or portion.
  • noun A number of persons united in opinion or action, as distinguished from, or opposed to, the rest of a community or association; esp., one of the parts into which a people is divided on questions of public policy.
  • noun (Mil.) A part of a larger body of company; a detachment
  • noun A number of persons invited to a social entertainment; a select company; ; also, the entertainment itself.
  • noun One concerned or interested in an affair; one who takes part with others; a participator
  • noun The plaintiff or the defendant in a lawsuit, whether an individual, a firm, or corporation; a litigant.
  • noun Hence, any certain person who is regarded as being opposed or antagonistic to another.
  • noun Cause; side; interest.
  • noun Now accounted a vulgarism. A person.
  • noun (Law) a jury composed of different parties, as one which is half natives and half foreigners.
  • noun a partisan.
  • noun a factious and unreasonable temper, not uncommonly shown by party men.
  • noun a joint verdict.
  • noun (Arch.), (Law) A wall that separates adjoining houses, as in a block or row.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English partie, part, side, group, from Old French, from feminine past participle of partir, to divide, from Latin partīre, from pars, part-, part; see part.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French parti ("parted"), from Latin partītus ("parted"), past participle of partiri ("to divide"). More at part.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman partie, Old French partie, from Medieval Latin partita ("a part, party"), from Latin partita, feminine of partitus, past participle of partiri ("to divide"); see part.

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Examples

  • You have to tow the party line to get the nomination, even though that \'party line\ 'is so far out of the mainstream.'

    Stuck Between Iraq and a Hard Place 2007

  • Now, there you have at once the reason why we want the ballot; we want to be able to do something for the party in a substantial way, so that men may not tell us they have no room for us because we do nothing _for the party_.

    History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) Matilda Joslyn Gage 1862

  • Well, then, so far as there is no law, there is the reign of influence; there is party without of necessity _party_ action.

    Loss and Gain The Story of a Convert John Henry Newman 1845

  • The most moderate party, consisting of those who would sustain the throne, but limit its powers by a free constitution, retaining many of the institutions and customs which antiquity had rendered venerable, was called the _Girondist party_.

    Madame Roland, Makers of History 1841

  • He will only hurt himself, and do no good to his party, for in _party_ the whole thing originates.

    Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 4 (of 6) With His Letters and Journals Thomas Moore 1815

  • “If you held a party in 1980 and didn’t have this song, you didn’t have a party” vocalist Mary Davis proclaimed in her introduction to

    Kansas City Star: Front Page 2010

  • This has badly affected the morale of our party workers, € Mr Ram Gopal Yadav, who heads the party€ ™ s parliamentary wing, said here on Saturday night.

    The Economic Times 2010

  • And to find out if that person will be at a party, you can check the parties stream or perform a Twitter search (e.g. +party +Friday) in that person's stream.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Web 2.0 2009

  • Certainly, this cannot be said to be an accurate description of the position of men who believe in the rule of a nation of one hundred and eighty millions by a small party of two hundred thousand or less -- or even by an entire class representing not more than six per cent. of the population -- and Lenine and his friends, recognizing the fact, decided to change the name of their group to the _Communist party_, by which name they are now known in Russia.

    Bolshevism The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy John Spargo 1921

  • His Justice and Development party is socially conservative and has been called Islamist-leaning by Western journalists but that's a label party officials themselves haven't embraced.

    News 2012

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