TER'RITORY, n. [L. territorium, from terra, earth.] 1. The extent or compass of land within the bounds or belonging to the jurisdiction of any state, city or other body. Linger not in my territories. They erected a house within their own territory. Arts and sciences took their rise and flourished only in those small territories where the people were free.2. A tract of land belonging to and under the dominion of a prince or state, lying at a distance from the parent country or from the seat of government; as the territories of the East India Company; the territories of the United States; the territory of Michigan; Northwest Territory. These districts of country, when received into the union and acknowledged to be states, lose the appellation of territory.
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