Lusitania

[loo-si-tey-nee-uh]

noun

(italics) a British luxury liner sunk by a German submarine in the North Atlantic on May 7, 1915: one of the events leading to U.S. entry into World War I.
an ancient region and Roman province in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding generally to modern Portugal.

Related formsLu·si·ta·ni·an, adjective, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lusitania

Contemporary Examples of lusitania

She enjoys the first of her new supply while murmuring "how dreadful" while reading at breakfast of the sinking of the Lusitania.
David's Bookclub: Time Regained
David Frum
April 8, 2013

Historical Examples of lusitania

Even Captain Lote's praise of the Lusitania poem was whole-hearted and ungrudging.
The Portygee
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
Then we got word by wireless that the Lusitania had been torpedoed.
The Emma Gees
Herbert Wes McBride
This makes the fate of Miss Cavell our affair as much as that of the Lusitania.
The Case of Edith Cavell
James M. Beck
Hayman, like all his associates, warned him not to go on the Lusitania.
Charles Frohman: Manager and Man
Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman
If the Arabic question is not complicated with the Lusitania a solution will be easier.
Face to Face with Kaiserism
James W. Gerard

British Dictionary definitions for lusitania

Lusitania

noun

an ancient region of the W Iberian Peninsula: a Roman province from 27 bc to the late 4th century ad; corresponds to most of present-day Portugal and the Spanish provinces of Salamanca and Cáceres

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

Word Origin and History for lusitania

Lusitania

Latin name of a region roughly corresponding to modern Portugal; in modern use, allusive or poetic for "Portugal." The Cunard ocean liner (sister ship of the Mauretania and Aquitania, also named after Roman Atlantic coastal provinces) was launched in 1906, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-20 on May 7, 1915.

lusitania in Culture

Lusitania

[(looh-suh-tay-nee-uh)]

A British passenger ship sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland in 1915. Germany, then at war with Britain but not with the United States (see World War I), had warned Americans against traveling on the ship. More than a hundred Americans died in the sinking. The incident worsened relations between Germany and the United States and encouraged American involvement in the war.