public
/ˈpʌblɪk
/- Mr Fitzgerald said the right of the press and the public to know matters of legitimate public concern was recognised.
- The trust recognised public concern but did not have any grounds to object to the trial.
- He is bound to recognise the acute public concern rightly aroused where deaths occur in custody.
Synonyms
- A number of local residents have put forward proposals to make the wooded public area a greater amenity for villagers.
- The ration of half an hour per week or fortnight is simply not enough and this should not be a case of finance but it should be in the area of public amenity.
- Residents in Redvales angered over plans to build a new nursery in the area held a public meeting on Monday.
Synonyms
- We take a look at the world of entertainment, pointing at various public figures and being all sarcastic.
- There is nothing wrong with public figures adapting their style to communicate with the widest number of people.
- He said Yorath was a public figure, who had tried to be a role model, but he recognised that his guilty plea meant he had failed.
Synonyms
- He seems to have a strategy, but it is one that he does not seem to have laid open for public view and debate.
- Which soap actor made a public apology for exposing himself on the internet?
- It is the attempt to exclude such views from acceptable public discourse that is anti-democratic.
Synonyms
- This time the SNP is emphasising better public services rather than the cost of delivering them.
- We want to end privatisation and bring services back into public ownership.
- Money, I may add, that could have been spent on improving public services.
Synonyms
- In fact public universities, as a result, have had to raise their tuitions dramatically.
- In the public universities the government is planning to impose fees on students.
- Like most public institutions the university has not escaped the effects of neo-liberalism.
- Many experts have thus given up the attempt to communicate with the general public.
- The course is suitable and worthwhile for all members of the general public.
- The final phase of the project will consist of competitions open to the general public.
Synonyms
- The American viewing public's interest is a powerful force in the future of the Games.
- Frankly, it may be complex to give a round up of all this to the French reading public, but we hope to be able to do that.
- The Victorian reading public had an insatiable appetite for this kind of fiction.
- It's a strange but pleasant feeling, meeting one's public for the first time.
- I descend to greet my public at 11 pm and am able to scrutinize at least 6 different chins and sets of grinning teeth at close quarters.
- Suddenly, as if on cue, he straightened his shoulders and walked downstage to greet his public.
Synonyms
Phrases
go public
in public
the public eye
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin publicus, blend of poplicus 'of the people' (from populus 'people') and pubes 'adult'.
The root of public, Latin publicus, is shared by publish (Middle English) ‘to make public’ and republic (late 16th century) Latin res public ‘the business of the people’, and is related to people. People have been able to go to a public house for a drink since the 1650s, and to the abbreviated pub since around 1800. In Australia they could also stay the night—there a pub can also be a hotel. The first publicans were collectors of taxes (collectors of the public revenue), not sellers of drinks. This explains the disparaging references to them in various biblical passages, such as: ‘And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?’ (Gospel of Matthew). The use of the term to refer to a person who manages a pub dates from the early 18th century. In North America and elsewhere public schools are schools supported by public funds and open to all, and people often wonder why English public schools, which are private, fee-paying, and independent, are so called. In England a public school, a term first recorded in 1580, was originally a grammar school founded for the benefit of the public, as opposed to a private school run for the profit of its owner. Such schools were open to all and took resident students from beyond their local neighbourhood. The passing of the Public Schools Act in 1868 to regulate the large, long-established schools of Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Harrow, Rugby, Charterhouse, Shrewsbury, Merchant Taylors’, and St Paul's, led to the term becoming a prestigious one which was also applied to newer schools. The source of the saying any publicity is good publicity appears to be a passage by Raymond Chandler, in the Black Mask (1933): ‘Rhonda Farr said: “Publicity, darling. Just publicity. Any kind is better than none at all.” ’ An alternative form is there's no such thing as bad publicity.