Obs. exc. attrib. Formerly used = (The) EAST INDIES. East India Company: a company formed for carrying on an East Indian trade, especially the English company incorporated in 1600, and described in its charter as ‘The Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies,’ which from 1773 exercised political power in the East, and had the chief part in the administration of the affairs of Hindostan, till 1858, when the government was assumed by the Crown. East India fly, an East Indian species of Cantharis or blister-fly; East Indiaman, a ship of large tonnage engaged in the East India trade.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 187. I account so farre of East India, as is from eighteene degrees North … to … Cape Comrein.
1655. E. Terry (title), A Voyage to East-India.
a. 1691. Boyle, Wks., VI. 192 (R.). Our own eight East India ships … are all safe in our harbours.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3980/4. Lost a New East-India Company’s Bond … for 150l.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 31, ¶ 2. A Boatswain of an East-India Man.
1809. R. Langford, Introd. Trade, 49. The East India Company was incorporated about … 1600.
1844. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., xx. (1862), 395. The crew of a West Indiaman or an East Indiaman.
b. In Anglo-Indian use sometimes attrib. = EURASIAN.
1831. Asiatic Jrnl., New Ser. VI. II. 106. Some elaborate speeches… were delivered by members of the East-India community.
