institution

Noun

institution (countable and uncountable, plural institutions)

1. A long-established organization or type of organization, particularly one involved with education, public service, or charity work.
   • The University of the South Pacific is the only internationally accredited institution of higher education in Oceania.
   • […] these professors of Little Red Schoolhouse-education did not themselves remain in the isolated and handicapped little institution they glorify.1922, Annual Meeting, volume 55, Maryland State Teachers' Association, page 67
2. A custom or practice of a society or community.
   • The institution of marriage is present in many cultures but its details vary widely across them.
   • To the cynical observation that speech is given us to conceal our thoughts it might be added that eating and drinking enable us to hide our feelings. I think that is why food is an institution almost whenever human beings have anything to say to one another.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
3. The building or buildings which house such an organization.
   • He's been in an institution since the crash.
4. (informal) A mental institution.
5. Any facility where people (especially those who are mentally or physically disabled or sick, or who are prisoners) are committed (confined), where their freedom to leave is restricted.
6. (informal) Any long established and respected place or business.
   • Over time, the local pub has become something of an institution.
   • [quoting Giles Coren] "The Wykeham Arms [a pub] is destroyed. They have turned a great old English institution into a shameful clip-joint. It's a shuddering, howling tragedy."2009 February 19, Gareth Lewis, “Giles Coren slams Winchester pub The Wykeham Arms”, in Southern Daily Echo
7. (informal) A person long established in a place, position, or field.
   • She's not just any old scholar; she is an institution.
8. The act of instituting something.
   • The institution of higher speed limits was a popular move but increased the severity of crashes.
   • Accordingly if we can show that a barbarous custom, like that of the priesthood of Nemi, has existed elsewhere; if we can detect the motives which led to its institution; if we can prove that these motives have operated widely, perhaps universally, in human society...1894, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough
9. The act by which a bishop commits a cure of souls to a priest.
10. (obsolete) That which institutes or instructs, particularly a textbook or system of elements or rules.
11. (informal) A correctional institution.