Britain

Great Britain.
Britannia (def 1).
Contemporary Examples

In Defense of the British Worker Peter Hoskin July 13, 2011
How Long Is a Year? Is the Earth Slowing Down? And Other Questions About Time Neil Shubin January 5, 2013
How I Got Addicted to Africa (and Wrote a Thriller About It) Todd Moss September 8, 2014
How Blacks Freed Themselves from Slavery Eric Herschthal February 17, 2014
The Week’s Best Longreads for October 5, 2013 David Sessions October 4, 2013

Historical Examples

A Defence of Virginia Robert L. Dabney
Welsh Fairy Tales William Elliott Griffis
The Story of the Great War, Volume VIII (of VIII) various
Tales And Novels, Volume 9 (of 10) Maria Edgeworth
The Angel Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull

noun
another name for Great Britain, United Kingdom
n.

Note: Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. Allied with the United States and the Soviet Union, the British, under the leadership of Winston Churchill, played an important role in defeating Germany.

Note: Most of the settlers of the American colonies were British. The colonies remained under the British crown until the American Revolutionary War.

Note: It is one of the world’s leading industrialized nations.

Note: A constitutional monarchy, Britain’s government calls for the hereditary king or queen to perform mostly ceremonial functions. Parliament governs the country.

Note: At the height of its imperial power in the late nineteenth century, Britain boasted colonies and possessions around the globe. (See British Empire.)