English · Idiom Historical

The Five Nations

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A description applied by Kipling to the British Empire— the Old Country, with Canada, Australia, South Africa, and India.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

mô tả về Đế quốc Anh

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “The Five Nations” mean?

A description applied by Kipling to the British Empire— the Old Country, with Canada, Australia, South Africa, and India.

Is “The Five Nations” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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