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Public   /pˈəblɪk/   Listen
adjective
Public  adj.  
1.
Of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; opposed to private; as, the public treasury. "To the public good Private respects must yield." "He (Alexander Hamilton) touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprung upon its feet."
2.
Open to the knowledge or view of all; general; common; notorious; as, public report; public scandal. "Joseph,... not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily."
3.
Open to common or general use; as, a public road; a public house. "The public street."
public act or public statute (Law), an act or statute affecting matters of public concern. Of such statutes the courts take judicial notice.
Public credit. See under Credit.
Public funds. See Fund, 3.
Public house, an inn, or house of entertainment.
Public law.
(a)
See International law, under International.
(b)
A public act or statute.
Public nuisance. (Law) See under Nuisance.
Public orator. (Eng. Universities) See Orator, 3.
Public stores, military and naval stores, equipments, etc.
Public works, all fixed works built by civil engineers for public use, as railways, docks, canals, etc.; but strictly, military and civil engineering works constructed at the public cost.


noun
Public  n.  
1.
The general body of mankind, or of a nation, state, or community; the people, indefinitely; as, the American public; also, a particular body or aggregation of people; as, an author's public. "The public is more disposed to censure than to praise."
2.
A public house; an inn. (Scot.)
In public, openly; before an audience or the people at large; not in private or secrecy. "We are to speak in public."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Public" Quotes from Famous Books



... was one of Mrs. Wynn's greatest troubles in coming to the bush that there were no public means of grace, and that no sound of the church-going bell was ...
— Cedar Creek - From the Shanty to the Settlement • Elizabeth Hely Walshe
... or unmake great industries. Great fortunes have depended upon it. He has affected values of millions upon millions, and yet he retires from office with unstained hands, without fortune, and without a spot upon his integrity. He has no children pensioned at the public charge. He will leave behind him no wealth gained directly or indirectly from his public opportunities. He will go back to a humble and simple dwelling not exceeding in costliness that of many a Massachusetts ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar
... was carried away, and public interest departed with it. Azuma-zi remained very quietly at his furnace, seeing over and over again in the coals a figure that wriggled violently and became still. An hour after the murder, to anyone coming into the shed it would have ...
— The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
... for instance, he would find would be Eton, a place transformed, indeed, by modern aristocracy, but still enjoying its mediaeval wealth and remembering its mediaeval origin. If he asked about that origin, it is probable that even a public schoolboy would know enough history to tell him that it was founded by Henry VI. If he went to Cambridge and looked with his own eyes for the college chapel which artistically towers above all others like a cathedral, he would ...
— A Short History of England • G. K. Chesterton
... which it could be possible to safeguard her. She might be seized upon returning from a tournament or entertainment; but this was improbable, as the queen would always have an escort of knights with her, and no attempt could be successful except at the cost of a public fracas and much loss of blood. Cuthbert regarded as out of the question that an outrage of ...
— The Boy Knight • G.A. Henty


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