ALLIES

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Allies mean? 

• ALLIES (noun)
  The noun ALLIES has 3 senses:

1. the alliance of nations that fought the Axis in World War II and which (with subsequent additions) signed the charter of the United Nations in 1945

2. in World War I the alliance of Great Britain and France and Russia and all the other nations that became allied with them in opposing the Central Powers

3. an alliance of nations joining together to fight a common enemy

  Familiarity information: ALLIES used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALLIES (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The alliance of nations that fought the Axis in World War II and which (with subsequent additions) signed the charter of the United Nations in 1945

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("Allies" is a kind of...):

alignment; alinement; alliance; coalition (an organization of people (or countries) involved in a pact or treaty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In World War I the alliance of Great Britain and France and Russia and all the other nations that became allied with them in opposing the Central Powers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("Allies" is a kind of...):

alignment; alinement; alliance; coalition (an organization of people (or countries) involved in a pact or treaty)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An alliance of nations joining together to fight a common enemy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("allies" is a kind of...):

alignment; alinement; alliance; coalition (an organization of people (or countries) involved in a pact or treaty)

 Context examples 

Sharks, it turns out, are one of the seagrasses' best allies in the fight to survive.

(Sharks, the seagrass protectors, National Science Foundation)

Based on the diets and habits of mammals, scientists found that elephants are the best allies for the Thai Annonaceae tree to spread its seeds.

(Thai Elephants Help Spread Jungle Fruit's Seeds, Sadie Witkowski/VOA)

And besides that, we had two able allies—rum and the climate.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I should think they would be wiser to fight with allies than without them, but that is their own affair.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If we exert ourselves, I think we shall not be long in want of allies.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Grasslands make up more than 40% of the world's ice-free land and can hold up to 30% of the world's carbon, making them critical allies in the fight against climate change.

(Environmental change is triggering an identity switch in grasslands, National Science Foundation)

I knew then that to struggle at the moment against the Count was useless. With such allies as these at his command, I could do nothing.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Screaming and howling, the great creatures rushed away in all directions through the brushwood, while our allies yelled in their savage delight, following swiftly after their flying enemies.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Uncertain who were their attackers, and unable to tell their English enemies from their newly-arrived Breton allies, the Spanish knights rode wildly hither and thither in aimless fury.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Additionally, within the monument expansion area, there are shipwrecks and downed aircraft from the Battle of Midway in World War II, a battle that marked a major shift in the progress of the war in favor of the Allies.

(National monument in Hawaii becomes world's largest marine protected area, NOAA)