Tribe

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·vt To distribute into tribes or classes.

II. Tribe ·noun A number of species or genera having certain structural characteristics in common; as, a tribe of plants; a tribe of animals.

III. Tribe ·noun A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line; as, the Duchess tribe of shorthorns.

IV. Tribe ·noun A nation of savages or uncivilized people; a body of rude people united under one leader or government; as, the tribes of the Six Nations; the Seneca tribe.

V. Tribe ·noun A division, class, or distinct portion of a people, from whatever cause that distinction may have originated; as, the city of Athens was divided into ten tribes.

VI. Tribe ·noun A family, race, or series of generations, descending from the same progenitor, and kept distinct, as in the case of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of Jacob.

Related Words

  • Tribe

    A collection of families descending from one ancestor. The "twelve tribes" of the Hebrews were the t...

    Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Judah, Tribe of

    Judah and his three surviving sons went down with Jacob into Egypt (Gen. 46:12; Ex. 1:2). At the tim...

    Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Naphtali, Tribe of

    On this tribe Jacob pronounced the patriarchal blessing, "Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth go...

    Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Reuben, Tribe of

    At the Exodus numbered 46,500 male adults, from twenty years old and upwards (Num. 1:20, 21), and at...

    Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Zebulun, Tribe of

    Numbered at Sinai (Num. 1:31) and before entering Canaan (26:27). It was one of the tribes which did...

    Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Ephraim, The tribe of

    Took precedence over that of Manasseh by virtue of Jacob's blessing (Gen. 41:52; 48:1). The descenda...

    Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Simeon, The tribe of

    Was "divided and scattered" according to the prediction in Gen. 49:5-7. They gradually dwindled in n...

    Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Benjamin, The Tribe Of

    The contrast between the warlike character of the tribe and the peaceful image of its progenitor com...

    William Smith's Bible Dictionary

  • Gad, The Tribe Of

    The country allotted to the tribe of Gad appears, speaking roughly, to have lain chiefly about the c...

    William Smith's Bible Dictionary