country

views updated May 18 2018

coun·try / ˈkəntrē/ • n. (pl. -tries) 1. a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory. ∎  (the country) the people of a nation. ∎  the land of a person's birth or citizenship: both my native and adopted countries are at war with yours.2. (often the country) districts and small settlements outside large towns, cities, or the capital: the airfield is right out in the country | [as adj.] a country lane. 3. an area or region with regard to its physical features: a tract of wild country. ∎  a region associated with a particular person, esp. a writer, or with a particular work: Steinbeck country includes the Monterey Peninsula.4. short for country music.

country

views updated May 18 2018

country country cousin a person with an unsophisticated and provincial appearance or manners. The phrase is recorded from the late 18th century, in Samuel Foote's The Lame Lover (1770): ‘Pester'd at table with the odious company of country cousins’.
go to the country test public opinion by dissolving Parliament and holding a general election; the term is first recorded in Disraeli's novel Sybil (1845).
happy is the country that has no history memorable events are likely to be unhappy and disruptive. The saying is recorded from the early 19th century, but Thomas Carlyle attributed a similar remark to the French political philosopher Montesquieu (1689–1755), ‘Happy the people whose annals are blank in the history-books!’, and a related saying of the mid 18th century is found in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack of 1740, ‘Happy that Nation,—fortunate that age, whose history is not diverting.’
in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king someone of moderate ability will dominate those with none. Saying recorded from the early 16th century.

See also country mouse.

Country

views updated May 14 2018

Country ★★★ 1984 (PG)

Strong story of a farm family in crisis when the government attempts to foreclose on their land. Good performances all around and an excellent portrayal of the wife by Lange. “The River” and “Places in the Heart,” both released in 1984, also dramatized the plight of many American farm families in the early 1980s. 109m/C VHS, DVD . Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard, Wilford Brimley, Matt Clark, Therese Graham, Levi L. Knebel; D: Richard Pearce; W: William D. Wittliff.

country

views updated May 14 2018

country tract of land; one's native land XIII; territory of a nation; nation, people XIV; rural districts XVI. ME. cuntre(e), contre(e) — OF. cuntrée, (mod.) contrée :- medL., Rom. contrāta, sb. use (sc. terra land) of fem. of adj. meaning ‘lying opposite or facing one’, hence ‘the landscape spread out before one’.
Hence countryman native XIV; compatriot XV; husbandman XVI. So countrywoman XV. countryside particular region of a country; orig. Sc.