Proper noun
the United Kingdom
A kingdom and sovereign state in Western Europe comprising the four countries of England, Scotland and Wales on the island of Great Britain, and Northern Ireland on the northeastern portion of the island of Ireland since 1922.
(historical) The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922).
(historical, informal, nonstandard) The Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801).
(nation's name) Kingdom consisting of several constituencies, actual, historical, or hypothetical.
the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
The German air offensives against British cities in World Wars I and II not only failed to coerce the United Kingdom to surrender, but Germany also lost both wars. John Mearsheimer
It's true: one of the things that I've always thought about American society is that you never get the sort of natural politicisation of class consciousness that you would get in the United Kingdom or even in Australia. Peter Carey
But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq, and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information, particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for. Kate Adie
In order to save the forty million inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, our colonial statesmen must acquire new lands for settling the surplus population of this country, to provide new markets. ... The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question. Cecil Rhodes
I suppose that the media and their portrayal of Islam and the almost tribal separations and divisions of the Muslims are the greatest issues confronting Muslims in the United Kingdom. Cat Stevens
The population of the United Kingdom has, for the first time, reached sixty million. If they stood on each other's shoulders they would reach perhaps twenty feet in the air before toppling over. Eddie Mair