derby

Derby, English horse race

Derby (där`bē), English horse race, instituted (1780) by the 12th earl of Derby and held annually at Epsom Downs, near London. The race is open only to three-year-old colts and fillies that must be entered when yearlings. The original course is still used; it is one yard longer than one and one-half miles. Hundreds of thousands of spectators view the race each year. Other well-known races, notably the Kentucky Derby (dûr`bē), held each year since 1875 at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky., have been named for the English classic.

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Derby, city and district, England

Derby (där`bē, dûr`–), city (1991 pop. 218,026) and district, county seat of Derbyshire, central England, on the Derwent River. Manufactures include automobiles and airplane engines, pottery (see Derby ware), synthetic textiles, beer, machinery, and chemicals. The city is also an important rail center. Derby was a Roman settlement and, in the 9th cent., one of the Five Boroughs of the Danes. England's first silk mill was built there in 1718. Derby is the birthplace of the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Noteworthy are the Cathedral of All Saints, with its Perpendicular tower (1509–27), the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary (designed by A. W. Pugin in 1838), the arboretum, the chapel of St. Mary of the Bridge, and a grammar school founded in 1160. The Univ. of Derby and a teacher-training college are also located in Derby.

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Derby, city, United States

Derby (dûr`bē), city (1990 pop. 12,199), New Haven co., SW Conn., at the confluence of the Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers, opposite Shelton; founded 1642 as a trading post, inc. as a city 1893. Its copper industry and pin manufactures date from the 1830s.

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Derby

One of the classic English horse races (established 1780), run in June over a 1¹⁄₂-mi (2,400 m) course at Epsom Downs, Surrey. Many other horse races have been named for the Derby (e.g., the Kentucky Derby), and the term itself has come to signify a race or contest of any type.

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Derby¹

Earl of. title of Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley. 1799--1869, British statesman; Conservative prime minister (1852; 1858--59; 1866--68)

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Derby²

1. the. an annual horse race run at Epsom Downs, Surrey, since 1780: one of the English flat-racing classics

2. any of various other horse races

3. local Derby a football match between two teams from the same area

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Derby

1. a city in central England, in Derby unitary authority, Derbyshire: engineering industries (esp aircraft engines and railway rolling stock); university (1991). Pop.: 229 407 (2001)

2. a unitary authority in central England, in Derbyshire. Pop.: 233 200 (2003 est.). Area: 78 sq. km (30 sq. miles)

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derby [′dər·bē]

(metallurgy)

A large, usually cylindrical piece of primary metal, whose weight may exceed 100 pounds (45 kilograms), formed by bomb reduction.

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Derby

classic annual race at Epsom Downs. [Br. Cult.: Brewer Dictionary, 276]

See : Horserace