Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The state or relationship of being brothers.
- noun Fellowship.
- noun An association of men, such as a fraternity or union, united for common purposes.
- noun All the members of a profession or trade.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The fact or condition of being a brother.
- noun The quality of being brotherly.
- noun An association of men for any purpose; a fraternity.
- noun A class of individuals of the same kind, profession, or occupation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state of being brothers or a brother.
- noun An association for any purpose, as a society of monks; a fraternity.
- noun The whole body of persons engaged in the same business, -- especially those of the same profession.
- noun Persons, and, poetically, things, of a like kind.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The state of being brothers or a brother.
- noun An association for any purpose, as a society of monks; a fraternity.
- noun The whole body of persons engaged in the same business, -- especially those of the same profession; as, the legal or medical brotherhood.
- noun Persons, and, poetically, things, of a like kind.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an organization of employees formed to bargain with the employer
- noun the kinship relation between a male offspring and the siblings
- noun people engaged in a particular occupation
- noun the feeling that men should treat one another like brothers
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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M. O'BRIEN: Yes, you know, the term brotherhood and fraternity is used a lot and it's, in this case, so very real and just the idea of them being there, supporting each other in their final hours.
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JR Ward, because the brotherhood is a hoot (though not intentionally).
Archive 2008-01-01 Nalini Singh 2008
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JR Ward, because the brotherhood is a hoot (though not intentionally).
Update & Reader Interview: Lisa B. Nalini Singh 2008
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"Equal to that, I am privileged to belong to what I call the brotherhood of veterans," he said.
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ANYWAY I didn't have time to think about it because if Rui goes to France that means our brotherhood is broken!
Team ROMANTIC Neurotic Scumweasel. karenhealey 2010
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The Latin American brotherhood was a pretty awful in general, coming out of some deranged ideas of Simon Bolivar, and it was an extraordinarily awful thing during the Cold War.
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Damon asks her if the renewed brotherhood is real and Elena tells him that he can trust Stefan.
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Agreed, the competition in that brotherhood is not intense.
Arthur Penn: a gentle man and a master of violence David Thomson 2010
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That is, unless you are convinced the brotherhood is hiding something .
A Conversation with Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code 2010
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Their brotherhood comes from the strength of intense faith rooted in indigenous attributes, images, symbols, magic and myth.
brtom commented on the word brotherhood
i use it only in context of the male branch (my experience) of the carmelite order ... no slight intended to the sisters
December 3, 2006