Found 2 items, similar to mafia.
English → English (WordNet) Definition: Mafia Mafia n 1: a crime syndicate in the United States; organized in families; believed to have important relations to the Sicilian Mafia [syn: Maffia, Cosa Nostra] 2: a secret terrorist group in Sicily; originally opposed tyranny but evolved into a criminal organization in the middle of the 19th century [syn: Maffia, Sicilian Mafia] 3: any tightly knit group of trusted associates [syn: maffia]
English → English (gcide) Definition: mafia organized crime \organized crime\ n. Groups of persons organized for illegal purposes, such as bootlegging, conducting illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, etc.; -- a general term encompassing most forms of criminal groups, but especially those that are consolidated into “families” more or less recognizing each other's different regions of operation; sometimes considered synonymous with the mafia or the syndicate. [PJC] Syndicate \Syn"di*cate\, n. [Cf. F. syndicat, LL. syndicatus.] 1. The office or jurisdiction of a syndic; a council, or body of syndics. --Bp. Burnet. [1913 Webster] 2. An association of persons officially authorized to undertake some duty or to negotiate some business; also, an association of persons who combine to carry out, on their own account, a financial or industrial project; as, a syndicate of bankers formed to take up and dispose of an entire issue of government bonds. [1913 Webster] 3. A more or less organized association of criminals controlling some aspects of criminal activity, in a specific area or country-wide; -- used loosely as a synonym for organized crime or the mafia. [PJC] 4. (Journalism) a commercial organization that purchases various journalistic items, such as articles, columns, or comic strips, from their individual creators, and resells them to newspapers or other periodicals for simultaneous publication over a wide area. [PJC]