union

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

• noun The act of uniting or the state of being united.
• noun A combination so formed, especially an alliance or confederation of people, parties, or political entities for mutual interest or benefit.
• noun Mathematics A set, every member of which is an element of one or another of two or more given sets.
• noun Agreement or harmony resulting from the uniting of individuals; concord.
• noun The state of matrimony; marriage.
• noun Sexual intercourse.
• noun A combination of parishes for joint administration of relief for the poor in Great Britain.
• noun A workhouse maintained by such a union.
• noun A labor union.
• noun A coupling device for connecting parts, such as pipes or rods.
• noun A device on a flag or ensign, occupying the upper inner corner or the entire field, that signifies the union of two or more sovereignties.
• noun An organization at a college or university that provides facilities for recreation; a student union.
• noun A building housing such facilities.
• noun The United States of America regarded as a national unit, especially during the Civil War.
• adjective Of, relating to, or loyal to the United States of America during the Civil War.
• adjective Of or relating to a labor union or labor union organizing.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In mech.: A device for connecting the ends of two pipes in a line, without turning either.
• noun The act of joining two or more things into one, and thus forming a compound body or a mixture; the state of being united; junction; coalition; combination: as, the union of soul and body.
• noun In zoology, anatomy, and bot.: The state of close and immediate connection of parts, organs, or tissues, especially of like parts, or the process of becoming so united; a growing together or its result, as in the different cases of symphysis, synostosis, synchrondrosis, ankylosis, confluence, concrescence, coalescence, conjugation, anastomosis, syzygy, zygosis, and the like. See the distinctive words.
• noun The connection of two or several individuals in a compound organism, as of several zoöids in a zoanthodeme.
• noun Matrimony; the matrimonial relation, married state, or conjugal bond.
• noun Concord; agreement and conjunction of mind, will, affections, or interest; harmony.
• noun That which is united or made into one; something formed by a combination of various parts or individual things or persons; an aggregate of united parts; a coalition; a combination; a confederation; a league.
• noun A confederacy of two or more nations, or of the various states of a nation: in this sense the United States of America is sometimes called by way of preëminence “The Union.”
• noun In England and Ireland, two or more parishes consolidated into one for the better administration of the poor-laws. It is in the discretion of the Local Government Board to consolidate any two or more parishes into one union under a single board of guardians elected by the owners and ratepayers of the component parishes. Each union has a common workhouse, and all the cost of the relief of the poor is charged upon the common fund.
• noun Two or more parishes or contiguous benefices consolidated into one for ecclesiastical purposes.
• noun An association of independent churches, generally either Congregational or Baptist, for the purpose of promoting mutual fellowship and cooperation in Christian work. It differs from most ecclesiastical bodies in possessing no authority over the churches which unite in it.
• noun A permanent combination among workmen engaged in the same occupation or trade. See trade-union.
• noun A union workhouse; a workhouse erected and maintained at the joint expense of parishes which have been formed into a union: in Scotland called a combination poor-house.
• noun That part of a flag which occupies the upper corner next the staff when it is distinguished from the rest in color or pattern, as in the flag of the United States, where it is blue with white stars, or in the flag of Great Britain; the jack.
• noun A flag showing the union only. See union flag and union jack, below.
• noun A joint, screw, or other connection uniting parts of machinery, or the like; a kind of coupling for connecting tubes together.
• noun A textile fabric of several materials, or of different kinds of thread.
• noun A shallow vat or tray in which partly fermented beer is kept to complete its fermentation or to cleanse itself.
• noun A large fine pearl.
• noun A statute of 1535-6, enacting the political union of Wales to England.
• noun A statute of 1706, uniting the kingdoms of England and Scotland on and after May 1st, 1707.
• noun A statute of 1800, which united the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland on and after January 1st, 1801.
• noun =Syn. 1-3. Union, Unity, Junction, Connection. Union is the act of bringing two or more together so as to make but one: as, the union of the Mississippi and the Missouri; union in marriage; or it is the state resulting, or the product of the act: as, the American Union. Unity is only the state of oneness, whether there has or has not been previous distinctness: as, the unity of God, the unity of faith, unity of feeling, interest, labor. Junction expresses not simply collocation, but a real and physical bringing into one. Union and junction differ from connection in that the last does not necessarily imply contact: there may be connection between houses by a portico or walk. It is literal to speak of the connection, and figurative to speak of the union, of England and America by a telegraphic cable.
• Of or pertaining to a union or to the Union (see I., 5 ); in favor of the Union: as, the Union party; Union principles; Union sympathies.
• A member of a trade-union.

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

• noun The act of uniting or joining two or more things into one, or the state of being united or joined; junction; coalition; combination.
• noun Agreement and conjunction of mind, spirit, will, affections, or the like; harmony; concord.
• noun That which is united, or made one; something formed by a combination or coalition of parts or members; a confederation; a consolidated body; a league.
• noun A textile fabric composed of two or more materials, as cotton, silk, wool, etc., woven together.
• noun obsolete A large, fine pearl.