PUBLIC SCHOOL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Public school

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/pˈəblɪk skul/ Listen

noun

Public school n.

In Great Britain, any of various schools maintained by the community, wholly or partly under public control, or maintained largely by endowment and not carried on chiefly for profit; specif., and commonly, any of various select and usually expensive endowed schools which give a liberal modern education or prepare pupils for the universities. Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and Winchester are of this class.

In the United States, a free primary, grammar, or high school maintained by the local government.

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Etymology of 'Public school'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Public school" Quotes from Famous Books

... to particularize some of the distinctive features of the American college, we need to understand our educational system as a whole. We start with the public school and impart to the youth a primary education. In the high school or academy the pupil is introduced into a higher circle of thought and life and then passes on to the college, where the aim is to extend general culture ...

— Colleges in America • John Marshall Barker

... taken for granted nowadays by fervent educationalists that the important thing to encourage in boys is keenness in every department of school life. As a matter of fact, the keenness which is as a rule most developed in the public school product is keenness about athletic exercises. In the intellectual region, a boy is encouraged to do his duty, but there is no question that a boy who manifested an intense enthusiasm for his school work, who talked, ...

— The Silent Isle • Arthur Christopher Benson

... a "new boy" at school is, "What's your name?" In this year of Grace the eighth decennial census is to be taken, asking that same question of all new comers into the great public school where towns and cities are educated. It will hardly be effected with that marvellous perfection of organization by which Great Britain was made to stand still for a moment and be statistically photographed. For ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... consider the point at present?" returned Malcolm gently. "There is a limited number of professions, certainly. What do you say to a mastership in a public school? I fancy the life would suit Cedric; his love of boating would score there." Then Dinah ...

— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... really fine high school at Gridley, Dick and Greg had not found their math. much of a torment. But now, after coming back from encampment, these young men began to wake up to the fact that West Point mathematics is a giant contrasted with the pigmy of public school mathematics. The two chums began to put in every minute they could spare over the long, bewildering array of ...

— Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point • H. Irving Hancock

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