An island of Trinidad and Tobago in the southeast West Indies northeast of Trinidad. Inhabited by Caribs when Columbus first visited it in 1498, the island was captured by the French in 1781 and ceded to the British in 1892. Tobago was united (1898) with Trinidad to form the colony of Trinidad and Tobago, which gained independence in 1962.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
