People

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  People \Peo"ple\ (p[=e]"p'l), n. [OE. peple, people, OF. pueple,
     F. peuple, fr. L. populus. Cf. {Populage}, {Public},
     {Pueblo}.]
     1. The body of persons who compose a community, tribe,
        nation, or race; an aggregate of individuals forming a
        whole; a community; a nation.


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              Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
                                                    --Gen. xlix.
                                                    10.
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              The ants are a people not strong.     --Prov. xxx.
                                                    25.
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              Before many peoples, and nations, and tongues.
                                                    --Rev. x. 11.
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              Earth's monarchs are her peoples.     --Whitter.
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              A government of all the people, by all the people,
              for all the people.                   --T. Parker.
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     Note: Peopleis a collective noun, generally construed with a
           plural verb, and only occasionally used in the plural
           form (peoples), in the sense of nations or races.
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     2. Persons, generally; an indefinite number of men and women;
        folks; population, or part of population; as, country
        people; -- sometimes used as an indefinite subject or
        verb, like on in French, and man in German; as, people in
        adversity.
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              People were tempted to lend by great premiums.
                                                    --Swift.
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              People have lived twenty-four days upon nothing but
              water.                                --Arbuthnot.
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     3. The mass of community as distinguished from a special
        class; the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the
        common crowd; as, nobles and people.
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              And strive to gain his pardon from the people.
                                                    --Addison.
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     4. With a possessive pronoun:
        (a) One's ancestors or family; kindred; relations; as, my
            people were English.
        (b) One's subjects; fellow citizens; companions;
            followers. "You slew great number of his people."
            --Shak.
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     Syn: {People}, {Nation}.
  
     Usage: When speaking of a state, we use people for the mass
            of the community, as distinguished from their rulers,
            and nation for the entire political body, including
            the rulers. In another sense of the term, nation
            describes those who are descended from the same stock;
            and in this sense the Germans regard themselves as one
            nation, though politically subject to different forms
            of government.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  People \Peo"ple\ (p[=e]"p'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Peopled}
     (p[=e]"p'ld) p. pr. & vb. n.; {Peopling} (p[=e]"p'l[i^]ng).]
     [Cf. OF. popler, puepler, F. puepler. Cf. {Populate}.]
     To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people;
     to populate. "Peopled heaven with angels." --Dryden.
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           As the gay motes that people the sunbeams. --Milton.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  people
       n 1: (plural) any group of human beings (men or women or
            children) collectively; "old people"; "there were at
            least 200 people in the audience"
       2: the body of citizens of a state or country; "the Spanish
          people" [syn: {citizenry}]
       3: the common people generally; "separate the warriors from the
          mass"; "power to the people" [syn: {multitude}, {masses},
          {mass}, {hoi polloi}]
       4: members of a family line; "his people have been farmers for
          generations"; "are your people still alive?"
       v 1: fill with people or supply with inhabitants; "people a
            room"; "The government wanted to populate the remote
            area of the country" [syn: {populate}]
       2: make one's home or live in; "She resides officially in
          Iceland"; "I live in a 200-year old house"; "These people
          inhabited all the islands that are now deserted"; "The
          plains are sparsely populated" [syn: {dwell}, {shack}, {reside},
           {live}, {inhabit}, {populate}, {domicile}, {domiciliate}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  206 Moby Thesaurus words for "people":
     Everyman, John Doe, Public, Richard Roe, agnate, ancestors,
     ancestry, anchor, animal kingdom, assembly, billet at, bivouac,
     blood, blood relation, blood relative, bodies, body politic,
     bourgeoisie, breed, brethren, brood, burrow, camp, children,
     churchgoers, citizenry, clan, clansman, class, cognate, collateral,
     collateral relative, colonize, come to anchor, common man,
     common people, commonage, commonality, commonalty, commoners,
     commonwealth, community, community at large, congregation,
     connections, consanguinean, constituency, consumers,
     cultural community, deme, demos, denizen, distaff side,
     distant relation, domesticate, drop anchor, dwellers, empeople,
     enate, ensconce, establish residence, estate, everybody, everyman,
     everyone, everywoman, family, flesh, flesh and blood, flock, fold,
     folk, folks, forebears, general public, gens, gentry, german, get,
     grass roots, habitancy, hearth, hive, hoi polloi, homefolks, house,
     household, inhabit, inhabitants, issue, keep house, kin, kind,
     kindred, kinfolk, kinnery, kinsfolk, kinsman, kinsmen, kinswoman,
     kith and kin, laity, laymen, line, lineage, linguistic community,
     live at, locate, masses, matriclan, men, menage, minyan,
     mobile vulgus, moor, mortals, move, multitude, nation, nationality,
     near relation, nest, next of kin, nonclerics, nonordained persons,
     occupy, offspring, order, parish, parishioners, park, patriclan,
     people at large, people in general, perch, persons, phratry, phyle,
     plant, plant kingdom, plebeians, plebes, polity, populace,
     populate, population, posterity, proletariat, public, race,
     ragtag and bobtail, rank and file, relations, relatives, relocate,
     reside, roost, seculars, sept, set up housekeeping, set up shop,
     settle, settle down, settle in, sheep, sib, sibling,
     silent majority, sit down, society, spear kin, spear side, species,
     speech community, spindle kin, spindle side, squat, stand, state,
     stay at, stem, stirps, stock, strain, strike root, subjects,
     sword side, take residence at, take root, take up residence,
     tenant, the citizenry, the crowd, the general public, the people,
     the populace, the population, the public, third estate, totem,
     tribe, tribesman, uterine kin, whole people, world, you and me
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PEOPLE. A state; as, the people of the state of New York; a nation in its 
  collective and political capacity. 4 T. R. 783. See 6 Pet. S. C. Rep. 467. 
       2. The word people occurs in a policy of insurance. The insurer insures 
  against "detainments of all kings, princes and people." He is not by this 
  understood to insure against any promiscuous or lawless rabble which may be 
  guilty of attacking or detaining a ship. 2 Marsh. Ins. 508.  Vide Body 
  politic; Nation.