guilds

Cultural  

1. Organizations of artisans in the Middle Ages that sought to regulate the price and quality of products such as weaving and ironwork. Guilds survived into the eighteenth century.

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Guilds gave way to trade unions, a very different type of organization. The artisans in the guilds were self-employed, unlike most members of trade unions.

Example Sentences

She was referred to as Dr Ann Limb by the City & Guilds Foundation, which she also chairs, in 2020, and in the Queen's Birthday Honours list announcing her damehood in 2022.

From BBC • Dec. 21, 2025

“Not only have we seen the inclusion of the advancements in the industry realized by the other Unions and Guilds, but we were able to address industry-specific issues in a meaningful way.”

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2024

Hector Cristaldo, president of the Union of Production Guilds, the main soybean chamber, said the country was currently locked out of China, which he said made up some two-thirds of the global market.

From Reuters • Jan. 5, 2023

She later received a certificate from City & Guilds, a trade school where she was not just the only woman, but older than the 16- and 17-year-old boys studying to be carpenters.

From New York Times • Sep. 25, 2022

The Signoria was henceforth to be composed of the Priors of the Arts, chosen from the chief members of the Greater Guilds, who now became the supreme magistrates of the State.

From The Story of Florence by Gardner, Edmund G.