A region of northeast China comprising the modern-day provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. It was the homeland of the Manchu people who conquered China in the 17th century and was hotly contested by the Russians and the Japanese in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chinese Communists gained control of the area in 1948.
Manchurian Man·chu'ri·an adj. & n.
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.