Border States

American  

plural noun

1. U.S. History. the Slave States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, which refused to secede from the Union in 1860–61.

2. the U.S. states touching the Canadian border.

3. certain countries of central and northern Europe that border on the former Soviet Union and belonged to the Russian Empire: Finland, Poland (prior to 1940), Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

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Example Sentences

The Old Confederacy and the Border States nominated the Republican ticket, and will shape its campaign.

From Time Magazine Archive

They are the cornerstone, the bulwark, among which "bolts" and "splits" and outright transitions occur far less frequently than among the eleven Western States, the eleven Eastern States, the four Border States.

From Time Magazine Archive

For 25 years before the Civil War no one knew which way the Border States would go if war came.

From Time Magazine Archive

With the West, South and Border States almost solidly for him, he apparently needed only a brace of Eastern States to coast home.

From Time Magazine Archive

And whereas, the same is producing much excitement among those members from the Border States who would prefer that said bar-room should be nearer Washington, in case of sickness.

From The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers, Series 1 by Newell, R. H. (Robert Henry)