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tant political institution . . . The coffeehouses were the chief organs through which the public opinion of the metropolis vented itself . . . Every man of the upper or middle class went daily to his coffeehouse to learn the news and discuss it. Every coffeehouse had one or more orators, to whose eloquence the crowd li…

A public room where coffee and other refreshments may be obtained.

it; fraud; cunning. The foxe, maister of collusion. Spenser. That they [miracles] be done publicly, in the face of the world, that there may be no room to suspect artifice and collusion. Atterbury. By the ignorance of the merchants or dishonesty of the weavers, or the collusion of both, the ware was bad and the price e…

An inscription, monogram, or cipher, containing the place and date of publication, printer's name, etc., formerly placed on the last page of a book. The colophon, or final description, fell into disuse, and . . . the title page had become the principal direct means of identifying the book. De Morgan. The book was uninj…

ng force; to fight. To combat with a blind man I disdain. Milton. After the fall of the republic, the Romans combated only for the choice of masters. Gibbon.

To become public; to appear; to be published. "It is indeed come out at last." Bp. Stillingfleet. (c) To end; to result; to turn out; as, how will this affair come out he has come out well at last.

A public assembly of the Roman people for electing officers or passing laws.

on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic. The public becomes powerful in proportion to the opulence and extensive commerce of private men. Hume.

ow only a small commission, as an errand; esp., an attendant or subordinate employee in a public office, hotel, or the like. The commissionaire familiar to European travelers performs miscellaneous services as a light porter, messenger, solicitor for hotels, etc.

An officer having charge of some department or bureau of the public service. Herbert was first commissioner of the Admiralty. Macaulay. The commissioner of patents, the commissioner of the land office, the commissioner of Indian affairs, are subotdinates of the secretary of the interior. Bartlett. Commissioner of deeds…

shared by, affecting or serving, all the members of a class, consired together; general; public; as, propertis common to all plants; the common schools; the Book of Common Prayer. Such actions as the common good requereth. Hocker. The common enemy of man. Shak.

Allowed to pasture on public commons. Commonable beasts are either beasts of the plow, or such as manure the ground. Blackstone.

A common; public pasture ground. To shake his ears, and graze in commons. Shak. Doctors' Commons, a place near St. Paul's Chuchyard in London where the doctors of civil law used to common together, and where were the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts and offices having jurisdiction of marriage licenses, divorces, reg…

The whole body of people in a state; the public.

A popular tumult; public disturbance; riot. When ye shall hear of wars and commotions. Luke xxi. 9.

deration of such states, having only limited powers. It is advocated by advanced French republicans; but it should not be confounded with communism.

Society at large; a commonwealth or state; a body politic; the public, or people in general. Burdens upon the poorer classes of the community. Hallam.

A controller; a public officer whose duty it is to examine certify accounts.

One who keeps the entrance to an edifice, public or private; a doorkeeper; a janitor, male or female.

Of or pertaining to preaching or public addresses. [Obs.] Howell.