Uncle Sam Definition
săm
noun
The U.S. (government or people), personified as a tall, spare man with chin whiskers, dressed in a red, white, and blue costume of swallow-tailed coat, striped trousers, and tall hat with a band of stars.
Webster's New World
The American nation or its people.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
- the IRS
- the Internal Revenue Service
- the U.S.
- the government
- the United States
pronoun
A personification of the United States government.
Uncle Sam Needs You! means The [U.S.] Army Needs You!
Wiktionary
Origin of Uncle Sam
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First attested 1812. Common folklore holds that his origins come from the men of an army base in Troy, New York, who would receive barrels of meat stamped with the initials U.S. The soldiers jokingly referred to it as the initials of the meat supplier, Uncle Samuel Wilson.
From Wiktionary
From US abbr. of United States
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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