hanse

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A medieval merchant guild or trade association.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun See hance.
• noun A league; a confederacy; a society or combination of merchants in mercantile towns, for the protection and facility of trade and transportation. In the middle ages French gilds were called hanses.
• noun Specifically [capitalized] The German Hanseatic league.
• [capitalized] Pertaining to the Hanse or German Hanseatic league: as, Hanse towns.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun An association; a league or confederacy.
• noun (Hist.) certain commercial cities in Germany which associated themselves for the protection and enlarging of their commerce. The confederacy, called also Hansa and Hanseatic league, held its first diet in 1260, and was maintained for nearly four hundred years. At one time the league comprised eighty-five cities. Its remnants, Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, are free cities, and are still frequently called Hanse towns.
• noun (Arch.) That part of an elliptical or many-centered arch which has the shorter radius and immediately adjoins the impost.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A league; a confederacy.
• noun A society or combination of merchants in mercantile towns, for the protection and facility of trade and transportation.
• noun A Mediaeval French guild.
• noun The German Hanseatic league; Hanse.
• adjective Pertaining to the Hanse or German Hanseatic league.