Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Domain

Do·main′ (dō·mān′), n. [F. domaine, OF. demaine, L. dominium, property, right of ownership, fr. dominus master, owner. See Dame, and cf Demesne, Dungeon.] 1. Dominion; empire; authority.

2. The territory over which dominion or authority is exerted; the possessions of a sovereign or commonwealth, or the like. Also used figuratively.

The domain of authentic history. E. Everett.

The domain over which the poetic spirit ranges. J. C. Shairp.

3. Landed property; estate; especially, the land about the mansion house of a lord, and in his immediate occupancy; demesne. Shenstone.

4. (Law) Ownership of land; an estate or patrimony which one has in his own right; absolute proprietorship; paramount or sovereign ownership.

Public domain, the territory belonging to a State or to the general government; public lands. [U.S.] — Right of eminent domain, that superior dominion of the sovereign power over all the property within the state, including that previously granted by itself, which authorizes it to appropriate any part thereof to a necessary public use, reasonable compensation being made.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.