mexican war

noun

1. the war between the U.S. and Mexico, 1846–48.

noun

1. the war fought between the US and Mexico (1846–48), through which the US acquired the present-day Southwest

A war fought between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. The United States won the war, encouraged by the feelings of many Americans that the country was accomplishing its manifest destiny of expansion. Mexico renounced all claims to Texas north of the Rio Grande and yielded a vast territory that embraces the present states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.