electorate
(ɪˈlɛktərət)
[f. elector + -ate1.]
1. a. The state or dignity of a German Elector. b. The dominions of an Elector.
| 1675 Lond. Gaz. No. 983/3 Imperialists have now quite cleared the Electorate of Cologne. 1721 Swift Corr. Wks. 1841 II. 654 It was a Whiggish action to honour duke Schomberg, who was..in the service of that electorate. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xvi. 241 The abdication of the electorate. 1834 Macaulay Chatham, Ess. (1854) I. 308 The whole electorate was in the hands of the French. |
2. The whole body of electors.
| 1879 O'Connor Beaconsfield 534 The entire urban electorate of England. 1885 Manch. Exam. 15 May 5/1 The arguments..are such as will tell upon the new electorate. |
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Add: 3. Austral. and N.Z. The place or district represented by an elected member of the parliament of Australia or New Zealand; a constituency.
| 1866 R. P. Whitworth Bailliere's N.S.W. Gazetteer 608 This electorate comprises the town and country districts of Dungog, Clarence, and Stroud (Port Stephens), and returns 1 member to the Legislative Assembly. 1902 W. H. Moore Constitution of Australia vi. 105 At the first general election, South Australia and Tasmania voted as single electorates. 1965 Oxf. N.Z. Encycl. 105/2 The country is divided into seventy-six European electorates, each of which returns one member to Parliament. 1979 S. Levine N.Z. Polit. Syst. v. 92 The small town and semi-rural electorates of the South Island failed to go to Labour. 1987 Stock & Land (Melbourne) 5 Mar. 7/1 We weren't able to muster sufficient resources to field candidates in all 39 electorates. |