Uncle Sam


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Uncle Sam
World War I US Army recruitment poster by
James Montgomery Flagg
(1877-1960)

Uncle Sam

 (săm)
n.
1. The government of the United States, often personified by a representation of a tall, thin man having a white beard and wearing a blue tailcoat, red-and-white-striped trousers, and a tall hat with a band of stars: "intent on giving states greater incentive to save both their dollars and Uncle Sam's" (New York Times).
2. The American nation or its people.
[From US, abbr. of United States.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Uncle Sam

n
(Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a personification of the government of the United States
[C19: apparently a humorous interpretation of the letters stamped on army supply boxes during the War of 1812: US]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Un′cle Sam′


n.
a personification of the government or people of the U.S.: represented as a tall, lean man with white chin whiskers, wearing a blue tailcoat, red-and-white-striped trousers, and a top hat with a band of stars.
[1805–15, Amer.; extension of the initials U.S.]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.Uncle Sam - a personification of the United States governmentUncle Sam - a personification of the United States government
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
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References in classic literature ?
From the loftiest point of its roof, during precisely three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats or droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of the republic; but with the thirteen stripes turned vertically, instead of horizontally, and thus indicating that a civil, and not a military, post of Uncle Sam's government is here established.
On emerging from the Old Manse, it was chiefly this strange, indolent, unjoyous attachment for my native town that brought me to fill a place in Uncle Sam's brick edifice, when I might as well, or better, have gone somewhere else.
The Collector's junior clerk, too a young gentleman who, it was whispered occasionally covered a sheet of Uncle Sam's letter paper with what (at the distance of a few yards) looked very much like poetry -- used now and then to speak to me of books, as matters with which I might possibly be conversant.
It was not merely during the three hours and a half which Uncle Sam claimed as his share of my daily life that this wretched numbness held possession of me.
Uncle Sam's gold -- meaning no disrespect to the worthy old gentleman -- has, in this respect, a quality of enchantment like that of the devil's wages.
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For here, if one can't talk clearly, and straight to the point, they send him to Rigmarole Town; while Uncle Sam lets him roam around wild and free, to torture innocent people."
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Just why he had left America and his high place in the navy he never had divulged; nor why it was that for seven years he had not set his foot upon ground which lay beneath the authority of Uncle Sam.
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The overcoat he had pawned at Uncle Sam's, and he and Saxon had eaten drearily at a Japanese restaurant which in some miraculous way managed to set a semi-satisfying meal for ten cents.
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At his back he bore a knapsack, marked by the well known initials that have since gained for the government of the United States the good-humoured and quaint appellation of Uncle Sam.
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Hamdi - known as "Uncle Sam" to his customers - opened his own restaurant, in Renshaw Street, opposite Lewis's, in the 1980s, relocating to Bold Street in 2013.
Much-loved restaurant closes doors; NEWS WIRE
Hamdi - known as 'Uncle Sam' to his customers - opened his own restaurant, in Renshaw Street opposite Lewis's department store, in the 1980s.
Legendary Liverpool restaurant Uncle Sam's closes after three decades; Customers react with shock to sudden closure of Uncle Sam's
They say the money was 900,000 of Uncle Sam's money.
Lord, so who really caused financial loss to the state na?

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