Border States

American  

plural noun

1. U.S. History. the Slave States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, which refused to secede from the Union in 1860–61.

2. the U.S. states touching the Canadian border.

3. certain countries of central and northern Europe that border on the former Soviet Union and belonged to the Russian Empire: Finland, Poland (prior to 1940), Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

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Example Sentences

The eleven states of the Old Confederacy contain 128 electoral votes and five Border States add 42, for a total of 170.

From Time Magazine Archive

Senator from Kentucky, as the vice-presidential prospect most likely to help the ticket in the Border States and the South.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Old Confederacy and the Border States nominated the Republican ticket, and will shape its campaign.

From Time Magazine Archive

For 25 years before the Civil War no one knew which way the Border States would go if war came.

From Time Magazine Archive

But the Border States were as yet debatable ground; they might be retained by conciliation and compromise or alienated by hostile measures, whether directed against them or against the seceded States.

From Baltimore and The Nineteenth of April, 1861 A Study of the War by Brown, George William