Search the Dictionary

A condition in which the lower classes of a nation control public affairs without respect to law, precedents, or vested rights. It is good name that Dr. Stevens has given to our present situation (for one can not call it a government), a mobocracy. Walpole.

To preside over, direct, or regulate, as a public meeting; as, to moderate a synod.

The first public examinations for degrees at the University of Oxford; -- usually contracted to mods.

such pieces; coin. To prevent such abuses, ... it has been found necessary ... to affix a public stamp upon certain quantities of such particular metals, as were in those countries commonly made use of to purchase goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of those public offices called mints. A. Smith.…

One of certain public pawnbroking establishments which originated in Italy in the 15th century, the object of which was to lend money at a low rate of interest to poor people in need; -- called also mount of piety. The institution has been adopted in other countries, as in Spain and France. See Lombard-house.…

A publication which appears regularly once a month.

A hall for public meetings; a hall of judgment. [Obs.] "The moot-hall of Herod." Wyclif.

A hill of meeting or council; an elevated place in the open air where public assemblies or courts were held by the Saxons; -- called, in Scotland, mute-hill. J. R. Green.

One who mounts a bench or stage in the market or other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infalliable remedies; a quack doctor. Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a mountebank ... is preferred before an able physician. Whitlock.…

seek for, expose, or charge, esp. habitually, corruption, real or alleged, on the part of public men and corporations. On April 14, 1906, President Roosevelt delivered a speech on "The Man with the Muck Rake," in which he deprecated sweeping and unjust charges of corruption against public men and corporations. The phra…

A bolter from the Republican party in the national election of 1884; an Independent. [Political Cant, U.S.]

ds and papers. Blount. Muniment house or room, that room in a cathedral, castle, or other public building, which is used for keeping the records, charters, seals, deeds, and the like. Gwilt.

des. Tennyson. -- Music box. See Musical box, under Musical. -- Music hall, a place for public musical entertainments. -- Music loft, a gallery for musicians, as in a dancing room or a church. -- Music of the spheres, the harmony supposed to be produced by the accordant movement of the celestial spheres. -- Music…

A place for public musical entertainments; specif. (Eng.), esp. a public hall for vaudeville performances, in which smoking and drinking are usually allowed in the auditorium.

f sustenance, etc.; destitute; unaided; bare. Patriots who had exposed themselves for the public, and whom they say now left naked. Milton.

Those of a certain name; a race; a family. The ministers of the republic, mortal enemies of his name, came every day to pay their feigned civilities. Motley.

Of or pertaining to a nation; common to a whole people or race; public; general; as, a national government, language, dress, custom, calamity, etc.

Originally, a laborer on canals for internal navigation; hence, a laborer on other public works, as in building railroads, embankments, etc. [Eng.]

who treats with others, either as principal or agent, in respect to purchase and sale, or public compacts.

g no part on either side; indifference. Men who possess a state of neutrality in times of public danger, desert the interest of their fellow subjects. Addison.