Uncle Sam

noun

1. a personification of the government or people of the U.S.: represented as a tall, lean man with white chin whiskers, wearing a blue tailcoat, red-and-white-striped trousers, and a top hat with a band of stars.

Uncle Sam

noun

1. a personification of the government of the United States

Uncle Sam

1. A figure who stands for the government of the United States and for the United States itself. Uncle Sam — whose initials are the abbreviation of United States — is portrayed as an old man with a gray goatee who sports a top hat and Stars and Stripes clothing. During World War I and World War II, posters of Uncle Sam exhorted young men to join the armed forces. (Compare John Bull.)

Word History and Origins

Origin of Uncle Sam¹

An Americanism dating back to 1805–15; extension of the initials U.S.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Uncle Sam¹

C19: apparently a humorous interpretation of the letters stamped on army supply boxes during the War of 1812: US

Example Sentences

In June, the department shared an image of Uncle Sam nailing to a wall a poster that read “Help yourself…and your country.”

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And guest star Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, called out the nation’s systemic racism.

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Britain was "clinging on to the coattails of Uncle Sam" with "crumbs from the Silicon Valley table".

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Routine reverence for America’s high-tech arsenal of air power has remained in sync with the assumption that, in the hands of Uncle Sam, the world’s greatest aerospace technologies would be used for the greatest good.

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In it, he wears his finest Uncle Sam garb and points at viewers, issuing a statement: “Kid Rock wants YOU to support Gavin Newsom.”

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