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Webster 1913 Edition

Public

Pub′lic

,
Adj.
[L.
publicus
,
poblicus
, fr.
populus
people: cf. F.
public
. See
People
.]
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.
Milton.
He [Alexander Hamilton] touched the dead corpse of the
public
credit, and it sprung upon its feet.
D. Webster.
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.
Matt. i. 19.
3.
Open to common or general use;
as, a
public
road; a
public
house.
“The public street.”
Shak.
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.

Pub′lic

,
Noun.
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.
Addison.
2.
A public house; an inn.
[Scot.]
Sir W. Scott.
In public
,
openly; before an audience or the people at large; not in private or secrecy.
“We are to speak in public.”
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition

Public

PUB'LIC

,
Adj.
[L.publicus, from the root of populus, people; that is, people-like.]
1.
Pertaining to a nation, state or community; extending to a whole people; as a public law, which binds the people of a nation or state, as opposed to a private statute or resolve, which respects an individual or a corporation only. Thus we say, public welfare, public good, public calamity, public service, public property.
2.
Common to many; current or circulated among people of all classes; general; as public report; public scandal.
3.
Open; notorious; exposed to all persons without restriction.
Joseph her husband being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. Matt.1.
4.
Regarding the community; directed to the interest of a nation, state or community; as public spirit; public mindedness; opposed to private or selfish.
5.
Open for general entertainment; as a public house.
6.
Open to common use; as a public road.
7.
In general, public expresses something common to mankind at large, to a nation, state, city or town, and is opposed to private, which denotes what belongs to an individual, to a family, to a company or corporation.
Public law, is often synonymous with the law of nations.

PUB'LIC

,
Noun.
The general body of mankind or of a nation, state or community; the people, indefinitely.
The public is more disposed to censure than to praise.
In this passage, public is followed by a verb in the singular number; but being a noun of multitude, it is more generally followed by a plural verb; the public are.
In public, in open view; before the people at large; not in private or secrecy.
In private grieve, but with a careless scorn,
In public seem to triumph, not to mourn.

Definition 2024

public

public

See also: públic

English

Alternative forms

Adjective

public ‎(comparative more public, superlative most public)

  1. Able to be seen or known by everyone; open to general view, happening without concealment. [from 14th c.]
    • 2011, Sandra Laville, The Guardian, 18 Apr 2011:
      Earlier this month Godwin had to make a public apology to the family of Daniel Morgan after the collapse of a £30m inquiry into his murder in 1987.
    • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
      Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.
  2. Pertaining to all the people as a whole (as opposed a private group); concerning the whole country, community etc. [from 15th c.]
    • 2010, Adam Vaughan, The Guardian, 16 Sep 2010:
      A mere 3% of the more than 1,000 people interviewed said they actually knew what the conference was about. It seems safe to say public awareness of the Convention on Biological Awareness in Nagoya - and its goal of safeguarding wildlife - is close to non-existent.
    • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19:
      In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
  3. Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the state on behalf of the community. [from 15th c.]
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
    • 2004, The Guardian, Leader, 18 Jun 2004:
      But culture's total budget is a tiny proportion of all public spending; it is one of the government's most visible success stories.
  4. Open to all members of a community; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes. [from 15th c.]
    • 2011, David Smith, The Guardian, 10 May 2011:
      Some are left for dead on rubbish tips, in refuge bags or at public toilets.
    • 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
      Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
  5. (of a company) Traded publicly via a stock market.

Antonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

public ‎(plural publics)

  1. The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group.
    Members of the public may not proceed beyond this point.
    • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Tremarn Case:
      “Two or three months more went by ; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […]”
    • 2007 May 4, Martin Jacques, The Guardian
      Bush and Blair stand condemned by their own publics and face imminent political extinction.
  2. (archaic) A public house; an inn.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)

Usage notes

  • Although generally considered uncountable, this noun does also have countable usage, as in the quotation above.

Derived terms

Translations

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: thus · order · near · #286: public · others · anything · matter

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /py.blik/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin publicus.

Adjective

public m ‎(feminine singular publique, masculine plural publics, feminine plural publiques)

  1. public

Etymology 2

Noun use of public (compare Latin publicum).

Noun

public m ‎(plural publics)

  1. public (people in general)
  2. audience
    Il devait plaire à son public.
    He had to please his audience

Ladin

Adjective

public m pl

  1. plural of publich

Old French

Alternative forms

Adjective

public m ‎(oblique and nominative feminine singular publique)

  1. public (not private; available to the general populace)

Derived terms

  • en public

References

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French public < Latin publicus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpu.blik/

Adjective

public m, n ‎(feminine singular publică, masculine plural publici, feminine and neuter plural publice)

  1. public

Noun

public

  1. the public

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman publik, public, Middle French public, publique et al., and their source, Latin pūblicus ‎(“pertaining to the people”), alteration (probably after pubes ‎(“adult men”)) of populicus, from populus ‎(“people”). Compare people.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpʌblɪk/
  • Hyphenation: pub‧lic

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