Plebeian

6 definitions found

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

  Plebeian \Ple*be"ian\ (pl[-e]*b[=e]"yan), a. [L. plebeius, from
     plebs, plebis, the common people: cf. F. pl['e]b['e]ien.]
     1. Of or pertaining to the Roman plebs, or common people.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Of or pertaining to the common people; vulgar; common; as,


        plebeian sports; a plebeian throng.
        [1913 Webster]

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

  Plebeian \Ple*be"ian\, n.
     1. One of the plebs, or common people of ancient Rome, in
        distinction from {patrician}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. One of the common people, or lower rank of men.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  plebeian
       adj 1: of the common people of ancient Rome; "a plebeian
              magistrate" [ant: {proletarian}, {patrician}]
       2: of or associated with the great masses of people; "the
          common people in those days suffered greatly"; "behavior
          that branded him as common"; "his square plebeian nose";
          "a vulgar and objectionable person"; "the unwashed masses"
          [syn: {common}, {vulgar}, {unwashed}]
       n : one of the common people [syn: {pleb}]

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

  61 Moby Thesaurus words for "plebeian":
     Babbittish, Cockney, Everyman, John Smith, Philistine, average man,
     base, baseborn, below the salt, bourgeois, brutish, campy, coarse,
     cockney, common, common man, commoner, commonplace, crass, gauche,
     general, high-camp, homely, homespun, humble, ignoble, inferior,
     kitschy, little fellow, little man, low, low-camp, low-class,
     lowborn, lowbred, lowbrow, lowly, mean, nonclerical, ordinary,
     plain, pleb, pop, popular, proletarian, provincial, public,
     roturier, rude, rustic, shabby-genteel, third-estate, uncouth,
     undistinguished, ungenteel, unpolished, unrefined, unwashed,
     vernacular, vulgar, working-class
  
  

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

  PLEBEIAN. One who is classed among the common people, as distinguished from 
  the nobles. Happily in this country the order of nobles does not exist. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  PLEBEIAN, n.  An ancient Roman who in the blood of his country stained
  nothing but his hands.  Distinguished from the Patrician, who was a
  saturated solution.