PATRICIAN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Patrician

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/pətrˈɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Patrician n.

(Rom. Antiq.) Originally, a member of any of the families constituting the populus Romanus, or body of Roman citizens, before the development of the plebeian order; later, one who, by right of birth or by special privilege conferred, belonged to the nobility.

A person of high birth; a nobleman.

One familiar with the works of the Christian Fathers; one versed in patristic lore. (R.)

adjective

Patrician adj.

(Rom. Antiq.) Of or pertaining to the Roman patres (fathers) or senators, or patricians.

Of, pertaining to, or appropriate to, a person of high birth; noble; not plebeian. "Born in the patrician file of society." "His horse's hoofs wet with patrician blood."

See images of 'Patrician'

Etymology of 'Patrician'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Patrician" Quotes from Famous Books

... carried him but too prematurely into the fields of adventurous honor. One slight and evanescent sketch of the relations which subsisted between Caesar and his mother, caught from the wrecks of time, is preserved both by Plutarch and Suetonius. We see in the early dawn the young patrician standing upon the steps of his paternal portico, his mother with her arms wreathed about his neck, looking up to his noble countenance, sometimes drawing auguries of hope from features so fitted for ...

— The Caesars • Thomas de Quincey

... officers from India on leave; merchants in the Greek and Turkey trades; a clerical English husband in a meek strait-waistcoat, on a wedding trip with his young wife; a majestic English mama and papa, of the patrician order, with a family of three growing-up daughters, who were keeping a journal for the confusion of their fellow-creatures; and a deaf old English mother, tough in travel, with a very decidedly grown-up daughter indeed, which daughter went sketching about the universe in the expectation of ...

— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... the daughter, would not dare to leave one shilling of a gambling debt unpaid—the one would bring down upon him the odium of his circle, but the other would not; and the odium of that circle is the only kind of odium he dreads. Appius Claudius apprehended no odium from his own order—the patrician—from the violation of the daughter of Virginius, of the plebeian order; nor did Sextus Tarquinius of the royal order, apprehend any from the violation of Lucretia, of the patrician order—neither would have been punished by their own order, but they were both punished by the ...

— Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official • William Sleeman

... for the sake of the Murillos. The famous picture of 'St. Isabel giving alms to the sick' has been arrested at Madrid on its return from Paris to Seville. As the Sevilians have instituted a 'process' for its recovery, it is likely to stay there for some time longer. 'The Patrician's Dream' is quite cheering to look upon, so rich and glowing it is. Shut your eyes to the semi-ludicrous effect of husband, wife, and dog, in a decreasing series, like the three genders in ...

— The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 9. - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 26, 1850 • Various

... the different species of game, well-stored and boundless is your range in Demerara. Here no one dogs you, and afterwards clandestinely inquires if you have a hundred a year in land to entitle you to enjoy such patrician sport. Here no saucy intruder asks if you have taken out a licence, by virtue of which you are allowed to kill the birds which have bred upon ...

— Wanderings In South America • Charles Waterton

More quotes...