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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

He made a clean sweep of the Midwest, the Mountain and Border States, the West Coast, appeared to have lost only Arizona in the Southwest.

From Time Magazine Archive

He owed his victory to Illinois, most of the smaller states in the West and Middle West, and particularly to the South and the Border States.

From Time Magazine Archive

Despite his comparative obscurity, Agnew will have wide appeal in the crucial Border States and possibly even in the Deep South.

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)