manifest destiny
3
9.5
- noun
- /ˈmænɪfɛst ˈdɛstəni/
- US
:
destino manifiesto
- Have you never heard of British ‘Imperialism’, or what the Americans call their ‘Manifest Destiny’?
- the manifest destiny phrase
- manifest destiny and racial ideology
- the nation's manifest destiny
Examples
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This new narrative recalls the manifest destiny of nineteenth-century America, with a Brazilian twist.
Academic text (2010) -
The notion of manifest destiny was widely accepted, portraying the expansion of the United States as a divine right.
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The road to manifest destiny was, however, falling apart.
Fiction book (1995) -
For it is our manifest destiny to pursue our own happiness.
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At mid-century, manifest destiny was looking beyond the Atlantic for a new area of influence.
Academic text (2001) -
So the average American reasoned in the 1840s when the spirit of manifest destiny was in the air.
Academic text (2003) -
Stevens was also an advocate of "manifest destiny," the political belief that American territorial expansion was inevitable.
Academic text (1992) -
There have always been political leaders, convinced of the nation's manifest destiny, who urged unconditional acceptance of war's necessity and warrant.
Academic text (2006) -
Europeans who were blinded by their racist "manifest destiny" used military might and coercion to partially or completely crush these societies.
Blog text (12) -
At the heart of declinism, therefore, can be found U.S. preoccupation with its manifest destiny—a destiny that can only be validated by being number one.
Academic text (1993)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'manifest' (clearly apparent) and 'destiny' (fate) yield a literal sense of an obvious or inevitable fate, so learners can partly infer a sense of inevitability. However, the specific 19th-century political doctrine about U.S. territorial expansion (and its theological/political connotations) is culturally and historically specific and not derivable from the constituents alone, making it only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Manifest destiny comes from 1800s America and gives a simple image: manifest means 'clear' and destiny means 'fate'. People used it to say the country's move west was clearly meant to happen—often thought to be given by God—so the phrase came to mean the belief that expansion was right and could not be stopped.