Forms: 3 anpyre, empyere, 4 empir, (impire, imparre), 4–5 emper(e, 4–6 empyr(e, 4– empire. [a. F. empire:—L. imperium in same sense; related to imperāre to command, whence imperātor EMPEROR.
Owing partly to historical circumstances, and partly to the sense of the etymological connection between the two words, empire has always had the specific sense ‘rule or territory of an EMPEROR’ as well as the wider meaning which it derives from its etymology.]
I. Imperial rule or dignity.
1. Supreme and extensive political dominion; esp. that exercised by an ‘emperor’ (in the earlier senses: see EMPEROR 1, 2), or by a sovereign state over its dependencies.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1332. For alle his empire so hiȝe in erþe is he grauen.
a. 1400. Know Thyself, in E. E. P. (1862), 132. Þauȝ þou haue kyngdam and empyre.
c. 1400. Three Kings Cologne, 18. Octauianus … in þe ȝeer of his Empire XLII.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20. They became his seruauntes … tyll the Persians had the empyre.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xxiii. (Arb.), 60. Your Maiestie haue shewed yourselfe … vertuous and worthy of Empire.
1681. Nevile, Plato Rediv., Publ. to Rdr. Many Treatises … alledged … That Empire was founded in Property.
1711. Pope, Temp. Fame, 347. And swam to empire thro’ the purple flood.
1821. Byron, Sardan., I. i. (1868), 350. Thirteen hundred years Of empire ending like a shepherd’s tale.
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 7. From this hour (1757), the establishment of the British empire in India may be dated.
2. transf. and fig. Paramount influence, absolute sway, supreme command or control.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 454. My lady … haldez þe empyre ouer vus ful hyȝe.
1579. Fulke, Confut. Sanders, 628. What Empyre hath Master Sander in Grammer.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 72. Thy blood and vertue Contend for Empire in thee.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 114. To deifie his power Who from the terrour of this Arm so late Doubted his Empire.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 182. The empire of philosophy extends over a few.
1838. Lytton, Alice, 129. You know the strange empire you have obtained over me.
1883. Stevenson, Treasure Isl., III. xiv. 113. Silence had re-established its empire.
3. The dignity or position of an emperor; also, † the reign of an emperor (obs.); = EMPERORSHIP.
1606. G. W[oodcocke], trans. Hist. Ivstine, Kk 3 b. He died: leauing no children behind him, in the fifteene year of his empire.
1844. Lingard, Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858), I. i. 6. Elevation of Constantine to the Empire.
4. A government in which the sovereign has the title of emperor.
1834. [see EMPLOYÉ].
1850. Merivale (title), A History of the Romans under the Empire.
1866. Crowe, Hist. France, xliii. (title), The Consulate and Empire.
Mod. The history of France under the Second Empire.
II. That which is subject to imperial rule.
5. An extensive territory (esp. an aggregate of many separate states) under the sway of an emperor or supreme ruler; also, an aggregate of subject territories ruled over by a sovereign state.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 733. All thys were of hys anpyre.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 6. Adelard of Westsex was kyng of þe Empire.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 282. God hath beraft him … his large empire.
1460. Lybeaus Disc., 843. A sercle … Of stones and of golde, The best yn that enpyre.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., I. i. 34. Let … the wide Arch Of the raing’d Empire fall.
1735. Burke, Sp. Conc. Amer., Wks. III. 69. An empire is the aggregate of many states under one common head.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 348. The position of London, relatively to the other towns of the empire, was, in the time of Charles the Second, far higher than at present.
1852. Tennyson, Ode on Death Wellington, I. 2. Bury the Great Duke with an empire’s lamentation.
1887. Whitaker’s Almanack, 297. The approximate population of the British Empire is now 321,000,000.
b. The Empire: before 1804 (and subsequently in Hist. use) often spec. the ‘Holy Roman’ or ‘Romano-Germanic’ empire.
1678. Wanley, Wond. Lit. World, V. i. § 100. 468/2. Rodolphus the second … was forced to … content himself with Austria and the Empire only.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 35. The general diet of the empire.
6. transf. and fig. (Cf. realm.)
c. 1440. York Myst., xlvi. 200. Farewele, nowe I passe to þe pereles empire.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 69. Called to be enherytours of the celestiall empyre.
1608. Shaks., Per., II. i. 53. These Fishers tell the infirmities of men, And from their watry empire recollect, All that may men approue, or men detect.
1656. W. Montague, Accompl. Wom., 124. Love is an Empire only of two Persons.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 154, ¶ 2. Æneas is represented as descending into the Empire of Death.
1772. Mackenzie, Man World, I. i. (1823), 241. Liberal minds will delight in extending the empire of virtue.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 15. Scorn and despair—these are mine empire.
7. A country of which the sovereign owes no allegiance to any foreign superior.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., c. 12. This realme of England is an Impire.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 242. The legislature … uses … empire … to assert that our king is … sovereign and independent within these his dominions.
III. 8. attrib. and Comb., as empire-plan, -race, etc.; (in matters of dress, of the first Napoleonic empire.) Empire City, State: in U.S. a name for the City and the State of New York.
1851. Gentl. Mag., CXXI. II. 54. God bless’d the empire-tree which thou didst plant.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel, ii. 66. The great empire-plan of Alexander.
1878. Morley, Condorcet, Crit. Misc., 52. Again, is the nation to be cajoled by some ambitious general, gratifying its desire to be an empire-race?
1887. Academy, 18 June, 440/1. She wore, of course, an Empire dress.
1888. Weldon’s Illust. Dressmaker, Dec. The Empire and Directoire styles are steadily increasing in popularity.
