Definition of "estancia" [es•tan•ci•a]

• A large estate or cattle ranch in Spanish America. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The estancia was a snug little place, amply watered by a river lying some miles above the last port where the small river-steamer called."
• "Another curious thing in the estancia was a large room set apart for the display of trophies sent from Buenos Ayres by the Minister's eldest son."
• "One or other of the party at Canterbury, as the three Englishmen had called their estancia, very frequently dropped in for a talk, and Mr. Hardy and the boys often rode over there when work was done, Canterbury was also a young settlement -- only four or five months, indeed, older than Mount"