MAFIA

mafia, maffia

(noun) any tightly knit group of trusted associates

Mafia, Maffia, Sicilian Mafia

(noun) a secret terrorist group in Sicily; originally opposed tyranny but evolved into a criminal organization in the middle of the 19th century

Mafia, Maffia, Cosa Nostra

(noun) a crime syndicate in the United States; organized in families; believed to have important relations to the Sicilian Mafia

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

See Mafia. The sense "entity which attempts to control a specified arena" makes an analogy to crime-syndicate mafias' attempts to control certain kinds of business in the regions in which they exist.

Noun

mafia (plural mafias)

A hierarchically structured secret organisation engaged in illegal activities like distribution of narcotics, gambling and extortion.

A crime syndicate.

A trusted group of associates, as of a political leader.

(in compound terms such as "moral mafia") An entity which attempts to control a specified arena.

Etymology

Proper noun

the Mafia

(specifically) An international criminal organization of Sicilian origin operating in Italy and the United States.

Synonym: Cosa Nostra

(by extension) Any organized crime syndicate operating internationally in high-level organized crime; often with a modifying adjective, such as a nationality.

Synonym: mob

A party game modelling a conflict between an informed minority (the mafia) and an uninformed majority (the innocents). Each player is secretly assigned a role within one of these teams, and the innocents attempt to identify the mafia members before they are all "murdered".

Alternative letter-case form of mafia (“an entity which attempts to control a specified arena”)

Source: Wiktionary

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Maf"fi*a, Ma"fi*a, n. [It. maffia.]

Definition: A secret society which organized in Sicily as a political organization, but is now widespread among Italians, and is used to further or protect private interests, reputedly by illegal methods.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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