league
/liːɡ/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
Forms leagues leaguing leagued the League leag
- noun A group or association of cooperating members. “the League of Nations”
- noun (sports) An organization of sports teams which play against one another for a championship. “My favorite sports organizations are the National Football League and the American League in baseball.”
- noun (chiefly in the negative) A class or type of people or things that are evenly matched or on the same level. “Forget about dating him; he's out of your league.”
- noun A prefecture-level administrative unit in Inner Mongolia (Chinese: 盟).
- noun (military) An alliance or coalition.
- verb (ambitransitive) To form an association; to unite in a league or confederacy; to combine for mutual support.
- adjective (UK, soccer) Playing in the The Football League or the Premier League, the top four divisions of English football
- noun (obsolete, measurement) A unit of itinerary distance varying with country, in Britain commonly about three statute miles (or five kilometres). Perhaps representing an hour's walking.
- noun Three nautical miles.
- noun A stone erected near a public road to mark the distance of a league.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English liege, ligg, lige (“a pact between governments, an agreement, alliance”), from Middle French ligue, from Italian lega, from the verb legare, from Latin ligō (“to tie”).
From Middle English lege (“league”), from Late Latin leuca, leuga (“the Gaulish mile”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *lougā (compare Middle Breton leau, lew, Breton lev / leo (“league”)). Doublet of legua.
English surname, perhaps a spelling variant of Leake.
Ellipsis.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A measure of length or distance, varying in different countries from about 2.4 to 4.6 English statute miles of 5.280 feet each, and used (as a land measure) chiefly on the continent of Europe, and in the Spanish parts of America. The marine league of England and the United States is equal to three marine, or geographical, miles of 6080 feet each.
- noun A stone erected near a public road to mark the distance of a league. [Obs.]
- noun An alliance or combination of two or more nations, parties, or persons, for the accomplishment of a purpose which requires a continued course of action, as for mutual defense, or for furtherance of commercial, religious, or political interests, etc. And let there be 'Twixt us and them no league, nor amity. Denham.
- verb To unite in a league or confederacy; to combine for mutual support; to confederate South.
Etymology [Cf. OE. legue, lieue, a measure of length, F. lieue, Pr. lega, legua, It. & LL. lega, Sp. legua, Pg. legoa, legua; all fr. LL. leuca, of Celtic origin: cf. Arm. leo, lev (perh. from French), Ir.leige (perh. from English); also Ir. & Gael. leac a flag, a broad, flat stone, W. llech, -- such stones having perh. served as a sort of milestone (cf. Cromlech).]
Etymology [F.ligue, LL. liga, fr. L. ligare to bind; cf. Sp. liga. Cf. Ally a confederate, Ligature.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “league”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details