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To render plebeian, common, or vulgar.

A rendering plebeian; the act of vulgarizing. [R.] You begin with the attempt to popularize learning . . . but you will end in the plebification of knowledge. Coleridge.

The common people; the vulgar; the multitude, -- comprehending all persons not distinguished by rank, office, education, or profession. Pope. To . . . calm the peers and please the populace. Daniel. They . . . call us Britain's barbarous populaces. Tennyson.

The quality or state of being adapted or pleasing to common, poor, or vulgar people; hence, cheapness; inferiority; vulgarity. This gallant laboring to avoid popularity falls into a habit of affectation. B. Jonson.

Common; vulgar. [Obs.] Arden of Feversham.

aining many flattish seeds. The common species of the Northern Atlantic States is Opuntia vulgaris. In the South and West are many others, and in tropical America more than a hundred more. O. vulgaris, O. Ficus-Indica, and O. Tuna are abundantly introduced in the Mediterranean region, and O. Dillenii has become common…

An early flowering plant of the genus Primula (P. vulgaris) closely allied to the cowslip. There are several varieties, as the white-, the red-, the yellow-flowered, etc. Formerly called also primerole, primerolles.

An ornamental European shrub (Ligustrum vulgare), much used in hedges; -- called also prim. Egyptian privet. See Lawsonia. -- Evergreen privet, a plant of the genus Rhamnus. See Alatern. -- Mock privet, any one of several evergreen shrubs of the genus Phillyrea. They are from the Mediterranean region, and have been m…

Of or pertaining to the proletaries; belonging to the commonalty; hence, mean; vile; vulgar. "Every citizen, if he were not a proletarian animal kept at the public cost." De Quincey. -- n.

Properly; hence, to a great degree; very; as, proper good. [Colloq & Vulgar]

nd bring his honest neighbors with him to make oath that they believes he swore truly; or vulgar, which was by fire or water ordeal, or by combat. See Ordeal. Wharton. Let him put me to my purgation. Shak.

Formerly, a genus of plants including the cypress vine (Quamoclit vulgaris, now called Ipomoea Quamoclit). The genus is now merged in Ipomoea.

The fruit of a shrub (Cydonia vulgaris) belonging to the same tribe as the apple. It somewhat resembles an apple, but differs in having many seeds in each carpel. It has hard flesh of high flavor, but very acid, and is largely used for marmalade, jelly, and preserves.

To throb; to quiver. [Local & Vulgar]

Of or pertaining to a rabble; like, or suited to, a rabble; disorderly; vulgar. [R.] Dryden.

A kind of grass (Agrostis vulgaris) highly valued in the United States for pasturage and hay for cattle; -- called also English grass, and in some localities herd's grass. See Illustration in Appendix. The tall redtop is Triodia seslerioides.

To purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or exellent; to polish; as, to refine the manners, the language, the style, the taste, the intellect, or the moral feelings. Love refines The thoughts, and heart enlarges. Milton.

Hence: Groveling; low; vulgar; as, a reptile race or crew; reptile vices. There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear. Burke. And dislodge their reptile souls From the bodies and forms of men. Coleridge.

A low, vulgar, brutal, foul-mouthed wretch; a lewd fellow. Spenser. Pope. Ribald was almost a class name in the feudal system . . . He was his patron's parasite, bulldog, and tool . . . It is not to be wondered at that the word rapidly became a synonym for everything ruffianly and brutal. Earle.

The talk of a ribald; low, vulgar language; indecency; obscenity; lewdness; -- now chiefly applied to indecent language, but formerly, as by Chaucer, also to indecent acts or conduct. The ribaldry of his conversation moved Macaulay.