franchise

[fran-chahyz]

noun

1. a privilege of a public nature conferred on an individual, group, or company by a government.

   a franchise to operate a bus system.

2. the right or license granted by a company to an individual or group to market its products or services in a specific territory.

3. a store, restaurant, or other business operating under such a license.

4. the territory over which such a license extends.

5. the right to vote.

   to guarantee the franchise of every citizen.

6. a privilege arising from the grant of a sovereign or government, or from prescription, which presupposes a grant.

7. Sports.

   1. the right to own or operate a professional sports team as a member of a league.

   2. a professional sports team.

   3. a player of great talent or popular appeal, considered vitally important to a team's success or future.

8. a set of creative works and related merchandise that share a fictional world, as films, television shows, books, or games.

   the Star Wars franchise;

   the Pokémon franchise.

9. a legal immunity or exemption from a particular burden, exaction, or the like.

10. Obsolete.,  freedom, especially from imprisonment, servitude, or moral restraint.

verb (used with object)

franchised, franchising 

1. to grant (an individual, company, etc.) a franchise.

   The corporation has just franchised our local dealer.

2. enfranchise.

franchise

/ ˈfræntʃɪzmənt, ˈfræntʃaɪz /

noun

1. the right to vote, esp for representatives in a legislative body; suffrage

2. any exemption, privilege, or right granted to an individual or group by a public authority, such as the right to use public property for a business

3. commerce authorization granted by a manufacturing enterprise to a distributor to market the manufacturer's products

4. the full rights of citizenship

5. films a film that is or has the potential to be part of a series and lends itself to merchandising

6. (in marine insurance) a sum or percentage stated in a policy, below which the insurer disclaims all liability

verb

1. (tr) commerce to grant (a person, firm, etc) a franchise

2. an obsolete word for enfranchise

franchise

¹

1. In business, a relationship between a manufacturer and a retailer in which the manufacturer provides the product, sales techniques, and other kinds of managerial assistance, and the retailer promises to market the manufacturer's product rather than that of competitors. For example, most automobile dealerships are franchises. The vast majority of fast food chains are also run on the franchise principle, with the retailer paying to use the brand name.

franchise

²

1. In politics, the right to vote. The Constitution left the determination of the qualifications of voters to the states. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, states usually restricted the franchise to white men who owned specified amounts of property. Gradually, poll taxes were substituted for property requirements. Before the Civil War, the voting rights of blacks were severely restricted, but the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, declared ratified in 1870, prohibited states from abridging the right to vote on the basis of race. Nevertheless, southern states used a variety of legal ploys to restrict black voting until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Women were not guaranteed the right to vote in federal elections until ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. In 1971 the Twenty-sixth Amendment lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. (See suffrage and suffragette.)

Losing the right to vote, called disfranchisement, is most commonly caused by failing to reregister, a procedure that is required every time a person changes residence.

Other Word Forms

• franchiser noun
• franchisee noun
• franchisement noun
• franchisable adjective
• franchisability noun
• overfranchised adjective
• subfranchise noun
• unfranchised adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of franchise¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French, derivative of franc “free”; frank ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of franchise¹

C13: from Old French, from franchir to set free, from franc free; see _frank

Example Sentences

Callahan raved about everything from Ward’s physical tools to his mental makeup as he outlined why the former University of Miami passer was exactly the player to turn around the struggling franchise.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She’s also appeared in a number of films, many of them horror-oriented, including the “Babysitter” franchise.

Read more on MarketWatch

But times have changed for the better, thankfully, and the real reason that liberals oppose modernizing the statute has nothing to do with protecting the black franchise, which was the original intent of the law.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

With Hollywood’s current trend of sequels and remakes, it’s easy to believe that “KPop Demon Hunters” could spawn its own franchise.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The Brewers play the game in a way that leads to uncharacteristic sloppiness from their adversaries—and that superpower has transformed them into an unlikely candidate to win the franchise’s first-ever championship.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal