noun
- the loyalty of a citizen to his or her government or of a subject to his or her sovereign.
- loyalty or devotion to some person, group, cause, or the like.
noun
- loyalty, as of a subject to his sovereign or of a citizen to his country
- (in feudal society) the obligations of a vassal to his liege lordSee also fealty, homage (def. 2)
late 14c., from Anglo-French legaunce “loyalty of a liege-man to his lord,” from Old French legeance, from liege (see liege); erroneously associated with Latin ligare “to bind;” corrupted in spelling by confusion with the now-obsolete legal term allegeance “alleviation.” General figurative sense of “recognition of claims to respect or duty” is attested from 1732.