[fran-chahyz] 
noun, verb, -chised, -chis⋅ing.| 1. | a privilege of a public nature conferred on an individual, group, or company by a government: a franchise to operate a bus system. |
| 2. | the right or license granted by a company to an individual or group to market its products or services in a specific territory. |
| 3. | a store, restaurant, or other business operating under such a license. |
| 4. | the territory over which such a license extends. |
| 5. | the right to vote: to guarantee the franchise of every citizen. |
| 6. | a privilege arising from the grant of a sovereign or government, or from prescription, which presupposes a grant. |
| 7. | Sports Slang. a player of great talent or popular appeal, considered vitally important to a team's success or future. |
| 8. | a legal immunity or exemption from a particular burden, exaction, or the like. |
| 9. | Obsolete. freedom, esp. from imprisonment, servitude, or moral restraint. |
| 10. | to grant (an individual, company, etc.) a franchise: The corporation has just franchised our local dealer. |
| 11. | enfranchise. |
[fran-chahyz-muh
nt, -chiz-] , noun [en-fran-chahyz] | 1. | to grant a franchise to; admit to citizenship, esp. to the right of voting. |
| 2. | to endow (a city, constituency, etc.) with municipal or parliamentary rights. |
| 3. | to set free; liberate, as from slavery. |
[en-fran-chahyz-muhnt, -chiz-] , noun | fran·chise (frān'chīz') n.
To grant a franchise to. [Middle English fraunchise, from Old French franchise, from franche, feminine of franc, free, exempt; see frank1.] |
In politics, the right to vote. The Constitution left the determination of the qualifications of voters to the states. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, states usually restricted the franchise to white men who owned specified amounts of property. Gradually, poll taxes were substituted for property requirements. Before the Civil War, the voting rights of blacks were severely restricted, but the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, declared ratified in 1870, prohibited states from abridging the right to vote on the basis of race. Nevertheless, southern states used a variety of legal ploys to restrict black voting until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Women were not guaranteed the right to vote in federal elections until ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. In 1971 the Twenty-sixth Amendment lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. (See suffrage and suffragette.)
Note: Losing the right to vote, called disfranchisement, is most commonly caused by failing to reregister, a procedure that is required every time a person changes residence.
In business, a relationship between a manufacturer and a retailer in which the manufacturer provides the product, sales techniques, and other kinds of managerial assistance, and the retailer promises to market the manufacturer's product rather than that of competitors. For example, most automobile dealerships are franchises. The vast majority of fast food chains are also run on the franchise principle, with the retailer paying to use the brand name.
franchise
An agreement between a firm and another party in which the firm provides the other party with the right to use the firm's name and to sell or rent its products. Selling franchise rights is a method of expanding a business quickly with a minimum of capital. See also franchisee, franchisor.
A right granted to another party by a government to engage in certain types of business. For example, a firm may obtain a government franchise to supply certain public services within a limited geographic region.