DISTRICT  , a word denoting in its more

general sense, a tract or extent of a country, town, &c., marked off for administrative or other purposes, or having some special and distinguishing characteristics . The medieval Latin districtus (from distringere, to distrain) is defined by Du Cange as Territorium feudi, seu tract us, in quo Dominus vassallos et tenentes suos distringere potest; and as justitiae exercendae in eo tractu facultas . It was also used of the territory over which the feudal lord exercised his jurisdiction generally . It may be noted that distringere had a wider significance than " to distrain " in the English legal sense (see DISTRESS) . It is defined by Du Cange as compellere ad aliquid faciendum per mulctam, poenam, vel capto pignore . In English usage, apart from its general application in such forms as postal district, registration district and the like, " district " has specific usages for ecclesiastical and local government purposes . It is thus applied to a division of a parish under the Church Building Acts, originally called a " perpetual curacy," and the church serving such a division is properly a " district chapel." Under the Local Government Act of 1894 counties are divided for the purposes of the act into urban and rural districts . In British India the word is used to represent the zillah, an administrative subdivision of a province or presidency . In the United States of America the word has many administrative, judicial and other applications . In South Carolina it was used instead of " county " for the chief division of the state other than in the coast region . In the Virginias, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and Maryland it answers to " township " or precinct, elsewhere the principal subdivision of a county . It is used for an electoral " division," each state being divided into Congressional and senatorial districts; and also for a political subdivision ranking between an unorganized and an arganized Territory—e.g., th District of Columbia and Alaska .