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British West Indies

American  

plural noun

  1. a term formerly used for the possessions of Great Britain in the West Indies.


British West Indies British  

plural noun

  1. a former name for the states in the Caribbean that are members of the Commonwealth: the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; along with the islands which remain as United Kingdom dependencies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the British Virgin Islands

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Hamilton was born out of wedlock on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 8, 2025

John Gladstone - the father of William Gladstone, one of the UK's most revered prime ministers - was one of the largest slave owners in the British West Indies.

From BBC Aug. 25, 2023

Instead, he had placed the money in an unregistered tax-free bank in the British West Indies.

From Washington Post Apr. 12, 2021

In 1857, in Canandaigua, New York, Douglass delivered a speech marking the anniversary of emancipation in the British West Indies.

From The Guardian Oct. 28, 2018

Louise Little, my mother, who was bom in Grenada, in the British West Indies, looked like a white woman.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

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