empire building
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of empire building
First recorded in 1895–1900
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One reason the Monroe doctrine and empire building went out of fashion was that colonies and client states wanted out.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 5, 2026
"A lot of the maps we have are military mapping so you get things that are of interest to armies and of interest to empire building, raw materials, resources, things like that."
From BBC • Nov. 25, 2023
Since then, McMahon has continued his empire building.
From Washington Post • Apr. 7, 2023
As more of the industrialized nations embarked on empire building, and as reaching international markets became an expected part of their strategy, the value of having strong navies to protect commercial trade only grew.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
Here, then, was the lord of Moctezuma, an hacendado, and hence one of the heavy timbers for his empire building.
From The Missourian by Lyle, Eugene P. (Eugene Percy)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
