PRECINCT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does precinct mean? 

• PRECINCT (noun)
  The noun PRECINCT has 1 sense:

1. a district of a city or town marked out for administrative purposes

  Familiarity information: PRECINCT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRECINCT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A district of a city or town marked out for administrative purposes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

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

city district (a district of a town or city)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "precinct"):

police precinct (a precinct in which law enforcement is the responsibility of particular police force)

election district; voting precinct (one of several districts into which a city or town is divided for voting; each contains one polling place)

 Context examples 

The blinds were always down, and her barefooted tribe was never permitted to enter the sacred precinct save on state occasions.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The shape standing before me had never crossed my eyes within the precincts of Thornfield Hall before; the height, the contour were new to me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Drag him forth, and let the foresters and the porters scourge him from the precincts!

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To pass between lodges of a modern appearance, to find herself with such ease in the very precincts of the abbey, and driven so rapidly along a smooth, level road of fine gravel, without obstacle, alarm, or solemnity of any kind, struck her as odd and inconsistent.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

On the other hand, it was Madge who fed him; also it was she who ruled the kitchen, and it was by her favor, and her favor alone, that he was permitted to come within that sacred precinct.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

How Jo did enjoy her 'wilderness of boys', and how poor, dear Aunt March would have lamented had she been there to see the sacred precincts of prim, well-ordered Plumfield overrun with Toms, Dicks, and Harrys!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was now day-light, and I returned to my house without waiting to congratulate with the emperor: because, although I had done a very eminent piece of service, yet I could not tell how his majesty might resent the manner by which I had performed it: for, by the fundamental laws of the realm, it is capital in any person, of what quality soever, to make water within the precincts of the palace.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Upon which, Janet came running up the stairs as if the house were in flames, darted out on a little piece of green in front, and warned off two saddle-donkeys, lady-ridden, that had presumed to set hoof upon it; while my aunt, rushing out of the house, seized the bridle of a third animal laden with a bestriding child, turned him, led him forth from those sacred precincts, and boxed the ears of the unlucky urchin in attendance who had dared to profane that hallowed ground.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The youth was not clad in monastic garb, but in lay attire, though his jerkin, cloak and hose were all of a sombre hue, as befitted one who dwelt in sacred precincts.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The poor man was very uncomfortable, for the children had bereft him of his wife, home was merely a nursery and the perpetual 'hushing' made him feel like a brutal intruder whenever he entered the sacred precincts of Babyland.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)