[ad. L. corporāt-us, pa. pple. of corporāre: see next.]
A. as pa. pple. 1. United into one body. arch.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. iii. (1495), 81. What is drawen and is lyke therto is corporate and onyd therto.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. 123. Four several functions corporate in one.
† 2. Embodied. Obs.
a. 1555. Latimer, Serm. & Rem. (1845), 333. It were too long to tell you … how long it were ere I could forsake such folly, it was so corporate in me.
B. adj. † 1. Large of body; corpulent. Obs.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 153. His body is so great and corporate.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, III. vi. 62. Leane men have more blod, corporat men have more fleshe.
† 2. Pertaining to or affecting the body. Obs.
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, 289. Goods and possessions be things onely accompaniyng the honor of the body of the owner, and therefore they be called corporate.
1613. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 427. When the partie for not appearing should haue some great losse or corporate paine.
† 3. Having a body, embodied; material. Obs.
c. 1532. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1057. In the whiche all maner shape and effigiation doth shyne clerely so well corporates [Fr. corporéez] as incorporates.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., 29 a/1. Al thinges, aswel … visible, as invisible, corporate, as incorporate.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Corporate, hauing a body.
1865. Bushnell, Vicar. Sacr., 442. Christ … is conceived to simply come into the corporate state of evil, and bear it with us.
4. Forming a body politic, or corporation.
Hence corporate body, body corporate: see BODY sb. 14. Corporate town: a town possessing municipal rights, and acting by means of a corporation. Corporate county: a city or town with its liberties, which has been constituted a county of itself, independent of the jurisdiction of the historical county or shire in which it is situated.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 19 § 10. In Hundredes, Townes Corporate and nott corporate, parisshes and all other places.
1577. Harrison, England, I. v. (1877), I. 130. These citizens … are to serve … in corporat townes where they dwell.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 270 (R.). Any person or persons, body politique, or corporate, or incorporate.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. I. iv. 85. There are also counties corporate.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., Ser. II. viii. (1869), 159. Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals.
1825. McCulloch, Pol. Econ., I. 33. The citizens of corporate towns.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. i. The powerful and corporate association they formed amongst themselves.
1887. Lowell, Democracy, etc. 32. They no longer belong to a class, but to a body corporate.
b. transf. Forming one body constituted of many individuals.
1880. Huxley, Crayfish, 128. Such an organism as a crayfish is only a corporate unity, made up of innumerable partially independent individuals.
5. Of or belonging to a body politic, or corporation, or to a body of persons.
Corporate name: the name by which a corporation engages in legal acts.
1607. Shaks., Timon, II. ii. 213. They answer in a joynt and corporate voice.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. Ded. 6. Your endeavours, in your private, as well as corporate capacity.
1770. in Examiner, 3 May (1812), 286/2. Lord Denbigh then asked what made a corporate act? Mr. Townsend, laughing, answered, an act of the Corporation.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 449. All county gaols, and … seventeen of the largest prisons under corporate jurisdiction.
1855. Act 19–20 Vict., c. 17 § 24, in Oxf. Camb. Enactmts., 248. The College, if a corporation, shall be assessed for the same in its corporate name.
1876. Digby, Real Prop., i. § 1. 12. The land ceased to be public land and became what we style corporate or private property.
† C. quasi-adv. Into the body. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xx. (1495), 206. In yonglynges meete taken corporat nouryssheth … the body.
