body corporate

American  

noun

Law.

1. a person, association, or group of persons legally incorporated; corporation.

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body corporate British  

noun

1. law a group of persons incorporated to carry out a specific enterprise See corporation

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Etymology

Origin of body corporate

First recorded in 1490–1500

Example Sentences

They are the backbone of the municipal as of the national body corporate.

From Germany and the Germans From an American Point of View by Collier, Price

Marsham had pounced upon a weak point in the Consolidated's armor and pierced deep into the body corporate.

From The Rapids by Sullivan, Alan

The West Indies are a small limb in the great body corporate of the British Empire, but there is no great and no small in the life of nations.

From The English in the West Indies or, The Bow of Ulysses by Froude, James Anthony

In some states, school funds are created by appropriating the public lands, which are lands owned by the state as a body corporate.

From The Government Class Book Designed for the Instruction of Youth in the Principles of Constitutional Government and the Rights and Duties of Citizens. by Young, Andrew W.

The Church, like every body corporate, may alter her laws without changing her identity.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12) by Burke, Edmund