body corporate

American  

noun

Law.

1. a person, association, or group of persons legally incorporated; corporation.

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body corporate British  

noun

1. law a group of persons incorporated to carry out a specific enterprise See corporation

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Etymology

Origin of body corporate

First recorded in 1490–1500

Example Sentences

The county council is a body corporate with power to hold lands.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 4 "England" to "English Finance" by Various

The connecting medium may be a person, a body corporate, or a state.

From "Colony,"--or "Free State"? "Dependence,"--or "Just Connection"? "Empire,"--or "Union"? by Snow, Alpheus Henry

The body corporate was too fatally diseased to cure itself Rottenness and corruption hung upon its borders, and were slowly sapping the foundations of its life.

From The Nation's Peril Twelve Years' Experience in the South by Anonymous

James I. in 1609 confirmed these privileges, giving the burgesses the right to be called a body corporate and to elect twelve aldermen and a common council of twenty-four.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2 "Camorra" to "Cape Colony" by Various

The Church, like every body corporate, may alter her laws without changing her identity.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12) by Burke, Edmund