1
- an authorization granted by a government or company to an individual or group enabling them to carry out specified commercial activities, for example providing a broadcasting service or acting as an agent for a company's products（政府或企业授予个人或团体的）特许, 特权。
1.1
- a business or service given such authorization to operate有特许经营权的企业（或行业）。
1.2
- a general title or concept used for creating or marketing a series of products, typically films or television shows（制作或推广系列产品, 尤其是系列影片或电视节目所用的）特许经营品牌（或创意）：
the Harry Potter franchise.
哈利·波特特许经营品牌。
1.3
- N. Amer. an authorization given by a league to own a sports team〈北美〉（由运动联合会授予的）会员运动队拥有权。
1.4
- N. Amer. informal a professional sports team〈北美, 非正式〉职业运动队。
1.5
- （亦作franchise player）N. Amer. informal a star player in a team〈北美, 非正式〉（球队的）明星球员。
2
- （一般作the franchise）the right to vote in public elections, especially for members of parliament（尤指选举议会议员的）选举权。
2.1
- the rights of citizenship公民权。
with obj.
1- grant a franchise to (an individual or group)给予（个人, 组织）特许权。
1.1
- grant a franchise for the sale of (goods) or the operation of (a service)给予（某产品）的特许经销权; 给予（某业务）的特许经营权：
all the catering was franchised out.
所有的公共饮食业的特许经营权都已颁发。
WORD TRENDS
Nowadays a successful film is rarely just a film - studios hope their productions will spawn lucrative spin-offs in the form of toys， games， books， DVDs， and， of course， sequels. Such film series are known as franchises, borrowing and extending the term used for a proven business model licensed for use by others， such as fast-food restaurants. The Oxford English Corpus shows that franchise is increasingly used in the cinematic sense， with common collocates representing familiar Hollywood brands such as James Bond， Star Trek， Batman， and Harry Potter. A hint of cynicism is creeping in， however， with the sense that franchises are often little more than manufactured moneymaking schemes: a greedy franchise that doesn't care to develop its characters beyond their punchlines ｜ he managed to milk the franchise on screen for nearly a decade.
派生词
franchisee
nounfranchiser
（亦作franchisor）noun词源
Middle English (denoting a grant of legal immunity)： from Old French, based on franc， franche 'free' （see FRANK1）. Sense 2 dates from the late 18th cent. and sense 1 from the 20th cent.