Standard Lemma guide

nabobship

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

The rank or condition of a nabob.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

Examples

  • 1687, Records of Fort St. George, Diary and Consultation Book, Madras: 1916, entry for November 1687, p. 180, [...] Potty Cawn was discharged from his Nabobship, and return’d to his Governmt att Changalaput [...]

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A position of extremely great wealth.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, figuratively

Examples

  • 1772, James Iredell, letter dated 20 July, 1772, cited in Don Higginbotham (ed.), The Papers of James Iredell, Raleigh, NC: Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 1976, p. 109, [...] an encumbered West India Estate, with the tax of high living, is no Nabobship, and an unfortunate Crop is a very severe shock to such a one.
  • 1792, Edmund Randolph, letter dated 25 May, 1792, cited in Frances Norton Mason (ed.), John Norton & Sons, Merchants of London and Virginia, New York: A.M. Kelley, 1968, p. 503, He bought a coachee, and had his own horses from home. They travelled [in] the stile of ancient Virginia Nabobship.
  • 1795, Noah Webster, quoted in the papers of Oliver Wolcott Jr., cited in Leonard D. White, The Federalists, New York: Macmillan, 1964, p. 273, If men, who are loading the govt with curses, & denouncing our Chief Magistrate, as a tyrant [...] are to be raised to opulence and nabobship, [...] who are the friends that will maintain that govt?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From nabob + -ship.

Across languages

Translations

5 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • French: nababie — rank or condition of a nabob
  • Italian: nababia — rank or condition of a nabob
  • Polish: nababia — rank or condition of a nabob
  • Portuguese: nababia — rank or condition of a nabob
  • Spanish: nababía — rank or condition of a nabob