college
[kol-ij]
- an institution of higher learning, especially one providing a general or liberal arts education rather than technical or professional training.Compare university.
- a constituent unit of a university, furnishing courses of instruction in the liberal arts and sciences, usually leading to a bachelor's degree.
- an institution for vocational, technical, or professional instruction, as in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, or music, often a part of a university.
- an endowed, self-governing association of scholars incorporated within a university, as at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England.
- a similar corporation outside a university.
- the building or buildings occupied by an institution of higher education.
- the administrators, faculty, and students of a college.
- (in Britain and Canada) a private secondary school.
- an organized association of persons having certain powers and rights, and performing certain duties or engaged in a particular pursuit: The electoral college formally selects the president.
- a company; assemblage.
- Also called collegium. a body of clergy living together on a foundation for religious service or similar activity.
- British Slang. a prison.
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Origin of college
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for college
Contemporary Examples
This is the Mexico that U.S. college students would be wise to steer clear of on spring break.
Under the current president and his predecessor, Jett notes, the ambassadorship of Belize has gone to college roommates.
In my four years of college, I know exactly one woman who has asked a man out on a date.
He had studied accounting in college, but he had become a cop for the same reason as Ramos.
The congressman traces his belief in Santa Claus back 40 years, when he was a student going to college “on the GI Bill.”
Historical Examples
I just came because I heard about Harlowe House and wanted to go to college.
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton CampusJessie Graham Flower
Now I shall be expelled from college and it is all your fault.
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton CampusJessie Graham Flower
This gentleman is bran new from college, and will be more than a match for you.
The Imaginary InvalidMolire
And, the day after his arrival from college, there came a mighty snow-storm.
The Paradise of ChildrenNathaniel Hawthorne
For this reason the century will ask its men to take a college education.
The Call of the Twentieth CenturyDavid Starr Jordan
college
- an institution of higher education; part of a university
- a school or an institution providing specialized courses or teachinga college of music
- the building or buildings in which a college is housed
- the staff and students of a college
- an organized body of persons with specific rights and dutiesan electoral college See also Sacred College
- a body of clerics living in community and supported by endowment
- mainly British an obsolete slang word for prison
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin collēgium company, society, band of associates, from collēga; see colleague
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for college
n.
"body of scholars and students within a university," late 14c., from Old French college "collegiate body" (14c.), from Latin collegium "community, society, guild," literally "association of collegae" (see colleague). At first meaning any corporate group, the sense of "academic institution" attested from 1560s became the principal sense in 19c. via use at Oxford and Cambridge.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper