Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tribe

Tribe (trīb), n. [L. tribus, originally, a third part of the Roman people, afterwards, a division of the people, a tribe; of uncertain origin: cf. F. tribu.]

1. A family, race, or series of generations, descending from the same progenitor, and kept distinct, as in the case of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of Jacob. "The Lion of the tribe of Juda." Rev. v. 5.

A wealthy Hebrew of my tribe. Shak.

2. (Bot.) A number of species or genera having certain structural characteristics in common; as, a tribe of plants; a tribe of animals.

☞ By many recent naturalists, tribe has been used for a group of animals or plants intermediate between order and genus.

3. A nation of savages or uncivilized people; a body of rude people united under one leader or government; as, the tribes of the Six Nations; the Seneca tribe.

4. A division, class, or distinct portion of a people, from whatever cause that distinction may have originated; as, the city of Athens was divided into ten tribes.

5. (Stock Breeding) A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line; as, the Duchess tribe of shorthorns.

Tribe, v. t. To distribute into tribes or classes. [R.]

Our fowl, fish, and quadruped are well tribed. Abp. Nicolson.

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. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.