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A body of troops, or any naval or military force or post, or the whole territory under the authority or control of a particular officer.

A commander; the commanding officer of a place, or of a body of men; as, the commandant of a navy-yard.

In South Africa, a military body or command; also, sometimes, an expedition or raid; as, a commando of a hundred Boers.

ending or intended to commemorate. "A sacrifice commemorative of Christ's offering up his body for us." Hammond. An inscription commemorative of his victory. Sir G. C. Lewis.

The body of officers charged with such service.

An officer whose business is to provide food for a body of troops or a military post; -- officially called commissary of subsistence. [U. S.] Washington wrote to the President of Congress . . . urging the appointment of a commissary general, a quartermaster general, a commissary of musters, and a commissary of artiller…

A joint, seam, or closure; the place where two bodies, or parts of a body, meet and unite; an interstice, cleft, or juncture.

lected or appointed, to whom any matter or bussiness is referred, either by a legislative body, or by a court, or by any collective body of men acting together. Commitee of the whole [house], a committee, embracing all the members present, into which a legislative or deliberative body sometimes resolves itself, for the…

ntal tone, with its third and fifth. -- Common council, the representative (legislative) body, or the lower branch of the representative body, of a city or other munisipal corporation. -- Common crier, the crier of a town or city. -- Common divisor (Math.), a number or quantity that divides two or more numbers or qu…

A state; a body politic consisting of a certain number of men, united, by compact or tacit agreement, under one form of government and system of laws. The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth. Milton.

. Subjects suffered to communicate and to have intercourse of traffic. Hakluyt. The whole body is nothing but a system of such canals, which all communicate with one another. Arbutnot.

A body of Christians having one common faith and discipline; as, the Presbyterian communion.

A body of people having common rights, privileges, or interests, or living in the same place under the same laws and regulations; as, a community of monks. Hence a number of animals living in a common home or with some apparent association of interests. Creatures that in communities exist. Wordsworth.…

together; to join firmly; to consolidate; to make close; -- as the parts which compose a body. Now the bright sun compacts the precious stone. Blackstone.

The body of actors employed in a theater or in the production of a play. To keep company with. See under Keep, v. t.

An ailment or disease of the body. One in a complaint of his bowels. Arbuthnot.

A mass or body formed by combining two or more substances; as, a chemical composition. A omposition that looks . . . like marble. Addison.

A natural tendency inherent in a body to develop itself; an attempt; an effort. What conatus could give prickles to the porcupine or hedgehog, or to the sheep its fleece Paley.

To bring to, or direct toward, a common center; to unite more closely; to gather into one body, mass, or force; to fix; as, to concentrate rays of light into a focus; to concentrate the attention. (He) concentrated whole force at his own camp. Motley.

The body of cardinals shut up in the conclave for the election of a pope; hence, the body of cardinals. It was said a cardinal, by reason of his apparent likelihood to step into St. Peter's chair, that in two conclaves he went in pope and came out again cardinal. South.