Forms: 1 cyning-, 3 kung-, 4–5 kyng-, 4– kingdom; also 4 king-, 4–5 kyngdam(e; 4–5 kinge-, 5 kynge-, 4–7 kyng-, 6–7 kingdome, (7 -doume), (4 kingdon, 5 kyngham). [OE. cyningdóm = OS. kuningdôm (MDu. koninghdom, Du. koningdom), G. königtum (only since 18th c.), ON. konungdóm-r: see KING and -DOM.
OE. cyningdóm is found only in the poem of Daniel, the usual word being cynedóm, whence ME. kinedom, KINDOM. The use of kingdom in ME. was further limited by the existence of KINGRIK and KINRIK, with the same senses.]
† 1. Kingly function, authority or power; sovereignty, supreme rule; the position or rank of a king, kingship. Obs. a. Without article.
a. 1000. Daniel, 567. Se [metod] þec aceorfeð of cyningdome. Ibid., 680. Þa wæs endedæʓ, þæs þe Caldeas cyningdom ahton.
c. 1325. Know Thyself, 96, in E. E. P. (1862), 132. Þauȝ þou haue kyngdam and empyre.
1529. Rastell, Pastyme, Hist. Rom. (1811), 13. Put downe from his dignyte of kyngdome.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. (1822), 12. Avarice and desire of kingdome.
a. 1679. Hobbes, Rhet., viii. (1681), 19. Monarchy … which Government, if he limit it by Law, is called Kingdom; if by his own will, Tyranny.
b. With poss. pron. or the (passing into 2 or 3).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7613. He dred his kingdon [v.r. -dome] to lese, Þat þai to king suld dauid chese.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 142. Thus was he from his kingdom Into the wilde Forest drawe.
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Irel., 28. Sume of hys eldre to-fore hym hadden somtyme the kynge-dome of all Irland.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. xiv. 47. Whan Saul had conquered the kyngdome ouer Israel.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. ii. 62. Else my Kingdome stands on brittle Glasse.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 767. Sigebert … resigned vp his kingdome.
2. An organized community having a king as its head; a monarchical state or government.
Latin Kingdom (see LATIN). Middle Kingdom, a translation of Chinese chung kwoh ‘central state,’ originally the name given, c. B.C. 1150, under the Chan dynasty, to the imperial state of Honan, in contrast to the dependencies surrounding it. In mod. use the term is sometimes confined to the eighteen provinces of China Proper, but is also used to denote the whole Chinese Empire. United Kingdom, Great Britain and Ireland, so called since the Act of Union of 1800.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2127 (Cott.). Þe mast cite … And mani riche kingdon [Gött. mani a noþer riche kingdame].
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 31. Somtyme þere were foure principal kyngdoms … þe firste kyngdom was vnder oure fore fadres from Adam to Moyses.
1657–8. Burton’s Diary (1828), II. 403. The Commons of England will quake to hear that they are returning to Egypt, to the garlick and onions of … a kingdom.
1672. Temple, Ess., Government, Wks. 1731, I. 102. If … a Nation extended it self over vast Tracts of Land and Numbers of People, it thereby arrived in time at the ancient Name of Kingdom, or modern of Empire.
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 133. This world … Contents us not. A better shall we have? A kingdom of the Just then let it be.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 19. There is ground enough for the opinion that all the kingdoms of Europe were, at a remote period, elective.
1801. Proclamation, 22 Jan. George the Third,… of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King.
1883. S. W. Williams, Middle Kingdom, I. 4. A third [name] is Chung Kwoh, or Middle Kingdom.
1883. Standard, 6 April, 5/2. The Middle Kingdom has forwarded the special articles requested.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 15 Oct., t/2. His invitation having been … only the second to a foreigner, by the Kingdom of the Chrysanthemum [Japan].
3. The territory or country subject to a king; the area over which a king’s rule extends; a realm.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1260. A kungriche his name bar; And of duma his sexte sune, A kungdom dirima.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 5567 (Trin.). Þenne commaundide kyng pharao … Ouer al his kyngdome euery where [etc.].
c. 1400. Three Kings Cologne, 8. In all þe londys and þe kyngdoms of þe eest.
a. 1450. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 210. Naverne and the kyngdom of Spayn.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. vii. 10. A true-deuoted Pilgrime is not weary To measure Kingdomes with his feeble steps.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 361. The utmost border of his kingdom.
1794. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 255. I wish he may be able to find his kingdom in the map of the British territories.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 71. The Kingdom of Naples consisted of the same provinces on the mainland which had been governed by the Bourbons.
b. A familiar name for the Scotch county of Fife, which was one of the seven Pictish kingdoms.
1710. Sibbald, Hist. Fife & Kinross, 3. It was from the large Extent of Fife of old, that the Vulgar are wont to call it The Kingdom of Fife.
1845–52. Billings, in Ordnance Gaz. Scotl., III. 19/1. A ramble amongst the grey old towns which skirt the ancient Kingdom of Fife.
1886. (title) The Kingdom; a handbook to Fife (ed. 3).
1899. Westm. Gaz., 21 Jan., 1/3 (heading), ‘Kodaks from the Kingdom.’
4. transf. and fig. a. The spiritual sovereignty of God or Christ, or the sphere over which this extends, in heaven or on earth; the spiritual state of which God is the head.
The conception and the different phrases expressing it are of frequent occurrence in the first three gospels. In Matthew the common form is the kingdom of heaven, sometimes merely the kingdom; in Mark and Luke, as well as in the epistles of St. Paul, the constant phrase is the kingdom of God. Cf. also Ps. cxlv. Daniel ii. 44, vii. 27, etc.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1615 (Gött.). Forto bring Þaim … Als his aune his kingdam tille.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1408. Þe way of lyfe … Þat ledes us til our contre-warde Þat es þe kyngdom of heven bright. Ibid., 8778. Þat land es cald … Þe kyngdom of God alle-myghty.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 105. Þere crist is in kyngdome … to opne it to hem and heuene blisse shewe.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. iii. 2. Do ye penaunce for the kyngdom of heuens shal neiȝ. Ibid. John xviii. 36. Jhesu answeride, My kyngdom is not of this world.
1567. Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 116. The gloriousnes of thy kingdome [they] teiche.
1671. Milton, P. R., III. 199. What concerns it thee, when I begin My everlasting Kingdom?
a. 1822. Shelley, Chas. I., III. 28. Until Heaven’s kingdom shall descend on earth.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xix. 25. ‘Augustine, sometimes I think you are not far from the kingdom,’ said Miss Ophelia.
b. Used in reference to the spiritual rule or realm of evil or infernal powers.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 18245. Nu es all vr kingdom for-dune, O man-kind mon we gett ful fune.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., V. ii. 30. I am Reuenge sent from th’ infernall Kingdome. Ibid. (1594), Rich. III., I. iii. 144. High thee to Hell … Thou Cacodemon, there thy Kingdome is.
1629. Milton, Hymn Nativ., 171. Th’ old Dragon … wrath to see his Kingdom fail. Ibid. (1667), P. L., VI. 183. Reign thou in Hell thy Kingdom.
c. A realm, region or sphere in which some condition or quality is supreme or prevails.
[1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 65. Wiþ þe kingdom of Couetise I Croune hem to-gedere.]
a. 1380. St. Ambrose, 755, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1878), 20. To þe kyngdom of blis Þat euer schal laste.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. iv. 47. I past (me thought) the Melancholly Flood … Vnto the Kingdome of perpetuall Night.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 177. In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
1872. Ruskin, Eagle’s N., § 33. The elastic and vaporous kingdom of folly.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, III. xxiii. (1876), 361. The Kingdom of Darkness is man’s arena of action separated from his God.
d. Any sphere in which one has dominion like that of a king.
c. 1600. Sir E. Dyer, Poems (ed. Grosart), 21. My mynde to me a Kyngdome is.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 406. His mind his kingdom, and his will his law. Ibid. (1784), Tirocin., 12. Hers [the soul’s] is the state … An intellectual kingdom all her own.
1825. Scott, Talism., vii. The sick-chamber of the patient is the kingdom of the physician.
e. Anything compared to a realm or country ruled by a king; a domain.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 246. The body of this fleshly Land, This kingdome, this Confine of blood, and breathe. Ibid. (1597), 2 Hen. IV., IV. iii. 118. All the rest of this little Kingdome (Man).
a. 1822. Shelley, Chas. I., II. 385. To dispeople your unquiet kingdom of man.
1832. Tennyson, Pal. Art, 228. The airy hand … divided quite the kingdom of her thought.
5. A realm or province of nature; esp. each of the three great divisions of natural objects, the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.
[1642. M. R. Besler (title), Gazophylacium Rerum Naturalium, e regno Vegetabili, Animali et Minerali depromptarum.]
a. 1691. Boyle, Chr. Virtuoso, II. I. i. § 3. The mineral kingdom, as, after the chemists, most writers now call it.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., iv. 131. If they confine the Earth to Pigmie Births in the Vegetable Kingdom.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v., Chymists … call the three Orders of Natural Bodies, viz. Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral, by the name of Kingdoms.
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 145. Another subject of the verdant kingdom … demands my particular notice.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), I. 5. The Animal, the Vegetable, and the Fossil or Mineral Kingdom.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. The., 178. The bodies of amphibious animals which now make part of the fossil kingdom.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 411. No kingdom of nature was left unexplored.
6. Kingdom-come (from the clause thy kingdom come in the Lord’s Prayer).
a. Heaven or paradise; the next world. slang.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., s.v., He is gone to kingdom come, he is dead.
1789. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Subj. Paint., Wks. 1812, II. 180. Sending such a Rogue to Kingdom-come.
1870. Miss Bridgman, R. Lynne, I. xii. 184. So old aunt Duncan has gone to kingdom come at last.
b. The millennial kingdom of Christ. Also attrib.
1848. Clough, Amours de Voy., III. 76. It would seem this Church is indeed of the purely Invisible, Kingdom-come kind.
1873. Miss Thackeray, Wks. (1891), I. p. x. A future … bound to us by a thousand hopes and loving thoughts—a Kingdom-come for us all.
7. attrib. and Comb., as kingdom-quake (after earthquake), -making, etc.
a. 1711. Ken, Urania, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 463. In Kingdom-quakes the wise Feel no disquieting surprise.
1872. A. de Vere, Leg. St. Patrick, Disbelief of Milcho, 161 Exile, or kingdom-wearied king.
1882. Times, 18 March, 4/2. The Russian intrigue which they say pushed on the kingdom-making.
Hence Kingdomful, as much as a kingdom can hold; Kingdomless a., having no kingdom; Kingdomship, a kingdom; a kingship.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., Index, The thyrd chapter treateth of … the kyngdomeshyp of Irland. Ibid., ii. (1870), 132. Irland is a Kingdomship longing to the Kyng of England.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 319. Provincial governors … here characterised as kings yet kingdomless.
