college

[kol-ij] /ˈkɒl ɪdʒ/
noun
1.
an institution of higher learning, especially one providing a general or liberal arts education rather than technical or professional training.
Compare university.
2.
a constituent unit of a university, furnishing courses of instruction in the liberal arts and sciences, usually leading to a bachelor's degree.
3.
an institution for vocational, technical, or professional instruction, as in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, or music, often a part of a university.
4.
an endowed, self-governing association of scholars incorporated within a university, as at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England.
5.
a similar corporation outside a university.
6.
the building or buildings occupied by an institution of higher education.
7.
the administrators, faculty, and students of a college.
8.
(in Britain and Canada) a private secondary school.
9.
an organized association of persons having certain powers and rights, and performing certain duties or engaged in a particular pursuit:
The electoral college formally selects the president.
10.
a company; assemblage.
11.
Also called collegium. a body of clergy living together on a foundation for religious service or similar activity.
12.
British Slang. a prison.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, Middle French < Latin collēgium, equivalent to col- col-1 + lēg-, variant stem of legere to gather + -ium -ium; cf. colleague
Related forms
postcollege, noun, adjective
precollege, noun, adjective
subcollege, noun
Examples from the web for college
  • Students come to universities with a remarkably materialistic view of what a college education can provide.
  • If you borrowed money and went to a college where the education didn't create any value, that is potentially a really big mistake.
  • Education planning and preparing for college can begin as early as families wish to do so.
  • Alcohol education, alcohol screening: college drinking.
  • Your chances of getting into a good high school, not to mention a good college, would diminish.
  • The newly elected pontiff must then literally walk out of the college of cardinals.
  • He did not go to college, choosing freelance photography while working at a radio station instead.
  • Students view business degrees as the surest bet for finding a job and paying off college loans.
  • It's not often that an incoming college freshman is already starting his own multimillion dollar business.
  • And one of the easiest targets is actually college-age people.
British Dictionary definitions for college

college

/ˈkɒlɪdʒ/
noun
1.
an institution of higher education; part of a university
2.
a school or an institution providing specialized courses or teaching: a college of music
3.
the building or buildings in which a college is housed
4.
the staff and students of a college
5.
an organized body of persons with specific rights and duties: an electoral college See also Sacred College
6.
a body of clerics living in community and supported by endowment
7.
(mainly Brit) an obsolete slang word for prison
Word Origin
C14: from Latin collēgium company, society, band of associates, from collēga; see colleague
Word Origin and History for college
n.

"body of scholars and students within a university," late 14c., from Old French college "collegiate body" (14c.), from Latin collegium "community, society, guild," literally "association of collegae" (see colleague). At first meaning any corporate group, the sense of "academic institution" attested from 1560s became the principal sense in 19c. via use at Oxford and Cambridge.

Slang definitions & phrases for college

College

Related Terms

joe college


college in the Bible

Heb. mishneh (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chr. 34:22), rendered in Revised Version "second quarter", the residence of the prophetess Huldah. The Authorized Version followed the Jewish commentators, who, following the Targum, gave the Hebrew word its post-Biblical sense, as if it meant a place of instruction. It properly means the "second," and may therefore denote the lower city (Acra), which was built after the portion of the city on Mount Zion, and was enclosed by a second wall.