public

Less common meanings

10. 10
    fansnouncountable or uncountable

    A group of people who support a particular person, especially a performer or writer; an audience or following, usually named with a possessive such as my or their.

    The novelist wrote a heartfelt note to his devoted public.

    Performers learn to read the mood of their public from the stage.

    Similaraudience, following, readership

    Note

    The possessive is what marks this use: my public, her public. Walter Scott, introducing Quentin Durward (1823), writes that "my Public are to be informed," with a capital letter and a plural verb, addressing his readers as a body of many people. Without a possessive, the noun usually slides back to people in general. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Walter Scott wrote Quentin Durward, first published in 1823. en.wikipedia.org
    • Scott's original introduction contains the exact words “my Public are to be informed,” with a capital P and a plural verb, addressing the readership collectively. api.pageplace.de
11. 11
    adjective

    Famous, prominent, and widely recognized, now surviving chiefly in the expression public figure.

    Once she became a public figure, every detail of her private life was scrutinized.

    He resented the loss of privacy that came with being a public figure.

    Note

    Used on its own, the adjective once meant simply "widely known." In Daniel Defoe's Colonel Jacque, the narrator says he "was not so publick here, as to be very well known," and counts that as his safety. That free predicative use is gone. Modern English keeps the meaning only when the word is attached to a noun, in public figure. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Public historically meant widely known. en.wiktionary.org
    • Daniel Defoe wrote the work called Colonel Jacque. gutenberg.org
    • The first-person narrator says he was not so publick here, as to be very well known. en.wiktionary.org
    • The narrator explicitly identifies his relative obscurity as a source of safety. gutenberg.org
12. 12
    population segmentnouncountable or uncountable

    A particular group of people who share an interest or characteristic, as in 'the reading public'.

    The publisher hoped the cheaper paperback would finally win over the reading public.

    Different publics responded to the announcement in very different ways.

    UsageUsually used with a describing word in front, as in the traveling public or the buying public.

    Similaraudience, community, constituency

    Note

    A segmenting sense, now a working term in public relations, where an organization can speak of its publics in the plural. John Ruskin made the idea explicit in "Art Criticism", insisting that "there is a separate public for every picture, and for every book." Unlike the people at large, this public is always someone in particular. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • John Ruskin wrote the quoted words in "Art Criticism". gutenberg.org
13. 13
    barnouncolloquialUKcountable or uncountableabbreviationellipsis

    Short for public house or public bar: a pub, or the plainer bar room inside one.

    The farmhands drank in the public, while visitors from town sat in the carpeted lounge next door.

    In those days a pint in the public cost a few pence less than the same pint in the saloon.

    Note

    Two shortened phrases share one spelling: public for the whole house, and public for the plain bar inside it. Thomas Hughes's "pleasant public" at the foot of a hill is an inn. In Ngaio Marsh's Off with His Head (first published in 1956 as Death of a Fool), the Public is a room, reached from the bar-parlor through a flap in the counter. The plural is publics; Scott spells it publicks. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • Public can shorten public house or public bar, denoting the establishment or its more basic bar. en.wiktionary.org
    • Thomas Hughes describes a "pleasant public" at the bottom of a descent, meaning a drinking establishment. gutenberg.org
    • Ngaio Marsh's Off with His Head was first published in 1956 under the title Death of a Fool. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel's Public is a room accessible from the bar-parlour through a flap in the bar counter. en.wiktionary.org
    • The plural of public is publics. en.wiktionary.org
    • Walter Scott uses the spelling publicks in Redgauntlet. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    The collective body of a politically organized nation or state; also, the common good or well-being of that body.

    Note

    An obsolete political usage treated the public as the state itself, and also as the state's welfare. When an older text sets the public against private interest, read it as "the commonwealth," not "the crowd." Modern English expresses the second meaning with public interest or public good, or with the older commonweal. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Public has obsolete senses meaning the politically organized state and its welfare. en.wiktionary.org
    • Commonwealth conveys the political community or its welfare in the historical sense being discussed. en.wiktionary.org
    • Public interest expresses the common good. en.wiktionary.org
    • Public good expresses the community's welfare. en.wiktionary.org
    • Commonweal is an archaic term for public well-being. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    verbarchaictransitive

    To bring something to wide public attention; to publicize or publish it.

    [H]e is such a barefooted rubber with my supersocks pulled over his face which I publicked in my bestback garden for the laetification of siderodromites and to the irony of the stars.

    1939, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

    Note

    The verb is archaic and Scottish in origin. Its listed forms are publics, publicking and publicked, with a k added before -ing and -ed. James Joyce writes "publicked" in Finnegans Wake (1939). For ordinary modern prose, use publicize or publish. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The verb is archaic and originally Scottish. en.wiktionary.org
    • Wiktionary lists publics, publicking and publicked, adding k before -ing and -ed. en.wiktionary.org
    • James Joyce uses publicked in Finnegans Wake. jjda.ie
    • Finnegans Wake was first published in 1939. en.wikipedia.org
16. 16
    adjectivearchaic

    Relating to nations collectively, or to civilized nations as a group; international, even supranational, in character.

    Note

    Earlier writers used public where we would now say international. When Robert Boyle writes of "the publique Quarrels in Christendome," he means conflicts among its states. Erasmus's paraphrase of 1549 glosses a "publike law" as one that belongs to men "of euery ſtate." Read older texts this way, but use international in modern writing, where public alone will be taken as domestic. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Earlier writers used public in the sense international. en.wiktionary.org
    • Robert Boyle wrote the quoted phrase. en.wiktionary.org
    • The English paraphrase of Erasmus glosses publike law as applying to men of every state. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    adjectiveobsolete

    Relating to the whole human race; common to all people, universal.

    In Iron Clouds conceal'd the Publick Light: / And Impious Mortals fear'd Eternal Night.

    1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”

    In the squares and places you see half-a-dozen of them together, sitting in a social circle on the bottoms of upturned baskets, knitting, talking, and enjoying the public sunshine, as if it were their own household fire.

    1858, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Mediterranean Sea”

    Note

    Here the word stretches to whatever all people share. Dryden's Virgil (1697) has iron clouds hiding "the Publick Light," meaning the sun that shines for everyone. In a notebook entry from 1858, first published in 1871, Hawthorne describes women enjoying "the public sunshine, as if it were their own household fire," setting the common good against the private hearth. The sense is obsolete, so use common or universal instead. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Dryden's translation of Virgil was first published in 1697. openbook.lib.utah.edu
    • Dryden's Virgil contains “the Publick Light” in a passage about iron clouds concealing sunlight. en.wikisource.org
    • 1858 is the date of composition. Passages from the French and Italian Note-books was first published in 1871. archive.org
    • Hawthorne describes women enjoying “the public sunshine, as if it were their own household fire.” gutenberg.org
18. 18
    nounobsoleteUScountable or uncountable

    At Harvard University, a disciplinary penalty involving a grade reduction that was reported to the student's parents or guardian.

    Note

    Harvard students used this word for a punishment that did not stay private. The sting lay in the disclosure, because the grade reduction was reported home to the student's parents or guardian. The term is obsolete American campus slang, found only in older writing about the college, and it should be explained if quoted today. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Public was a Harvard term for a disciplinary punishment. gutenberg.org
    • The punishment was commonly abbreviated to public. gutenberg.org
    • The punishment reduced the student's marks and involved notification of a parent or guardian. gutenberg.org
19. 19
    adjective

    In object-oriented programming, accessible to any part of the program, not only to a specific class or its subclasses.
20. 20
    nounnonstandard

    In English influenced by Russian and Ukrainian usage, a public page or channel on social media that posts news and other content to its followers.
21. 21
    adjectiveUK

    In some older UK universities, open to or belonging to the entire university rather than a particular college, staff member, or student.

    I meruailled, why himſelf [Niccolò Leoniceno] did not practiſe Phiſike of whiche facultee he was a Doctour, and a publique reader: I auaile moche more, ſaieth he, in that I teach all thother Phiſiciãs [physicians].

    1564, Erasmus, “The Saiynges of Socrates”