4 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

Confederacy

noun

1: the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861 [syn: {Confederate States}, {Confederate States of America}, {South}, {Dixie}, {Dixieland}]

2: a union of political organizations [syn: {confederation}, {federation}]

3: a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose [syn: {conspiracy}]

4: a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act [syn: {conspiracy}]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Confederacy \Con*fed"er*a*cy\, noun; pl. {Confederacies}. [From {Confederate}, adjective]

1. A league or compact between two or more persons, bodies of men, or states, for mutual support or common action; alliance.

The friendships of the world are oft Confederacies in vice or leagues of pleasure. --Addison.

He hath heard of our confederacy. --Shak.

Virginia promoted a confederacy. --Bancroft.

2. The persons, bodies, states, or nations united by a league; a confederation.

The Grecian common wealth, . . . the most heroic confederacy that ever existed. --Harris.

Virgil has a whole confederacy against him. --Dryden.

3. (Law) A combination of two or more persons to commit an unlawful act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. See {Conspiracy}.

Syn: League; compact; alliance; association; union; combination; confederation.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Confederacy \Con*fed"er*a*cy\, noun (Amer. Hist.) With the, the Confederate States of America. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

134 Moby Thesaurus words for "confederacy": Anschluss, Bund, Rochdale cooperative, addition, affiliation, agglomeration, aggregation, agreement, alignment, alliance, amalgamation, anschluss, artifice, assemblage, assimilation, association, axis, band, blend, blending, bloc, body, cabal, cahoots, cartel, centralization, coadunation, coalescence, coalition, colleagueship, college, collegialism, collegiality, collusion, combination, combine, combo, common market, complicity, complot, composition, comradeship, confederation, confraternity, congeries, conglomeration, conjugation, conjunction, connivance, consolidation, conspiracy, consumer cooperative, contrivance, contriving, cooperative, cooperative society, copartnership, copartnery, corps, council, counterplot, covin, credit union, customs union, deep-laid plot, economic community, ecumenism, embodiment, encompassment, engineering, enosis, federalization, federation, fellowship, finagling, finesse, frame-up, fraternalism, fraternity, fraternization, free trade area, freemasonry, fusion, game, gang, group, grouping, hookup, inclusion, incorporation, integration, intrigue, junction, junta, league, little game, machination, machine, maneuvering, manipulation, marriage, meld, melding, merger, mob, package, package deal, partnership, plot, plotting, political machine, rigging, ring, scheme, schemery, scheming, society, sodality, solidification, sorority, stratagem, syncretism, syndication, syneresis, synthesis, tie-in, tie-up, trick, underplot, unification, union, web of intrigue, wedding, wire-pulling

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