coˈpartnership
[f. prec. + -ship.]
1. The relation of copartners; the possession of a joint share in any business, office, or interest.
| 1574 tr. Marlorat's Apocalips 12 He..hathe taken vs intoo copartnership of hys office. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 128 In all Contracts, made for a copartnership in prouiding of a ioynt Stocke. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. vi. 19 Whose worship is uncapable of any Corrivalry or Co⁓partnership. 1694 tr. Milton's Lett. State (R. Cromwell to C. Gustavus 1658), The other..in Copartnership with one Peter Heinbergh, sail'd away for Stettin in Pomerania. 1871 Macduff Mem. Patmos x. 136 Hell or Hades, in grim copartnership, tracking his desolating path. |
| fig. 1745 J. Mason Self-Knowl. i. ii. (1853) 19 During this thy short Co-partnership with Flesh and Blood. |
2. A company or association of copartners.
| 1729 Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 12 To hold mankind together in little fraternities and copartnerships. 1866 Crump Banking ii. 46 A special clause which all banking copartnerships take care to include in their regulations. |
† 3. = coparcenary,
n. Obs.| a 1676 Hale (J.), [If he] left only daughters, the daughters equally succeeded to their father as in co-partnership. |