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

See Examples For:

Border States

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

The Solid South plus New York plus all the Border States would be 223 votes.

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

With the West, South and Border States almost solidly for him, he apparently needed only a brace of Eastern States to coast home.

From Time Magazine Archive

Besides these gentlemen, who met and heartily coöperated with us, there were several members from the Border States whose expressions were not less friendly, although they did not think it expedient to act with us.

From A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention For Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, Held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861 by Chittenden, L. E. (Lucius Eugene)