Easter Island

American

noun

an island in the S Pacific, W of and belonging to Chile. About 45 sq. mi. (117 sq. km): gigantic statues.

Easter Island British

noun

Polynesian name: Rapa Nui. Spanish name: Isla de Pascua. an isolated volcanic island in the Pacific, 3700 km (2300 miles) west of Chile, of which it is a dependency: discovered on Easter Sunday, 1722; annexed by Chile in 1888; noted for the remains of an aboriginal culture, which includes gigantic stone figures. Pop: 3791 (2002). Area: 166 sq km (64 sq miles)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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More unorthodox still is Attia’s rhapsodic ode to rapamycin, a drug derived from an antifungal agent first discovered in the soil of a volcanic crater on Easter Island.

From Slate

European explorers landed on Easter Island in the 18th century.

From The Wall Street Journal

Unimpressed by the island’s paltry range of crops, its brackish water and its inhabitants’ barely seaworthy canoes, Cook concluded that Easter Island had little to offer “visitant strangers,” writing that “no nation need contend for the honour of the discovery of this island, as there can be few places which afford less convenience for shipping than it does.”

From The Wall Street Journal

And then, suddenly, Easter Island was exposed to the full fury of 19th-century colonialism.

From The Wall Street Journal

The first missionary arrived on Easter Island in 1864: By 1868 all the islanders had been baptized.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023