Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Commons   /kˈɑmənz/   Listen
noun
Commons  n. pl.  
1.
The mass of the people, as distinguished from the titled classes or nobility; the commonalty; the common people. (Eng.) "'T is like the commons, rude unpolished hinds, Could send such message to their sovereign." "The word commons in its present ordinary signification comprises all the people who are under the rank of peers."
2.
The House of Commons, or lower house of the British Parliament, consisting of representatives elected by the qualified voters of counties, boroughs, and universities. "It is agreed that the Commons were no part of the great council till some ages after the Conquest."
3.
Provisions; food; fare, as that provided at a common table in colleges and universities. "Their commons, though but coarse, were nothing scant."
4.
A club or association for boarding at a common table, as in a college, the members sharing the expenses equally; as, to board in commons.
5.
A common; public pasture ground. "To shake his ears, and graze in commons."
Doctors' Commons, a place near St. Paul's Churchyard 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, registration of wills, etc.
To be on short commons, to have a small allowance of food. (Colloq.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Commons" Quotes from Famous Books



... was told,—told by public rumour, which had reached him through his uncle,—that the lady was willing. She certainly looked as though she liked him; but how was he to begin? The art of startling the House of Commons and frightening the British public by the voluminous accuracy of his statistics he had already learned; but what was he to say ...
— The Small House at Allington • Anthony Trollope

... sake, more than her own, obtained the wish of her heart, and was received as an acknowledged habituee into the circles of fashion. Amidst these circles, however, Dick found that his home entirely vanished; and when he came home from the House of Commons, tired to death, at two in the morning, disgusted at always hearing that Mrs. Avenel was not yet returned from some fine lady's ball, he formed a sudden resolution of cutting Parliament, Fashion, and London altogether; withdrew his capital, now very large, from his ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... while the Three were tightening Their harness on their backs, The Consul was the foremost man To take in hand an axe: And Fathers mixed with Commons Seized hatchet, bar, and crow, And smote upon the planks above, And loosed the ...
— Lays of Ancient Rome • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... the ordinary English boy, thus taught to utter one ignorance in one of two accents, get and keep through life about the French Revolution? It is the notion of the English House of Commons with an enormous Radical majority on one side of the table and a small Tory minority on the other; the majority voting solid for a Republic, the minority voting solid for a Monarchy; two teams tramping through two lobbies with no difference between ...
— Utopia of Usurers and other Essays • G. K. Chesterton

... no longer comfortable, now that Cynthy had sharpened her tongue, and turned "ferce," and now—hardest blow of all—that he was kept on short commons, he began to think he might as well be on the tented field, and get a little glory along with the discomfort if that was inevitable. Nature abhors a vacuum, and when food fell short patriotism had a chance ...
— Work: A Story of Experience • Louisa May Alcott


More quotes...



Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org