Part 2161

<hw>Com"mon*place`</hw>, <tt>n.</tt> <p><b>1.</b> <def>An idea or expression wanting originality or interest; a trite or customary remark; a platitude.</def>

<p><b>2.</b> <def>A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to.</def>

<blockquote>Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of <b>commonplace</b>. <i>Swift.</i></blockquote>

<cs><col>Commonplace book</col>, <cd>a book in which records are made of things to be remembered.</cd></cs>

<h1>Commonplace</h1> <Xpage=286>

<hw>Com"mon*place`</hw>, <tt>v. t.</tt> <def>To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads.</def>

<i>Felton.</i>

<h1>Commonplace</h1> <Xpage=286>

<hw>Com"mon*place`</hw>, <tt>v. i.</tt> <def>To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes.</def> <mark>[Obs.]</mark>

<i>Bacon.</i>

<h1>Commonplaceness</h1> <Xpage=286>

<hw>Com"mon*place`ness</hw>, <tt>n.</tt> <def>The quality of being commonplace; commonness.</def>

<h1>Commons</h1> <Xpage=286>

<hw>Com"mons</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n. pl.</tt>, <p><b>1.</b> <def>The mass of the people, as distinguished from the titled chasses or nobility; the commonalty; the common people.</def> <mark>[Eng.]</mark>

<blockquote>'T is like the <b>commons</b>, rude unpolished hinds, Could send such message to their sovereign. <i>Shak.</i></blockquote>

<blockquote>The word <b>commons</b> in its present ordinary signification comprises all the people who are under the rank of peers. <i>Blackstone.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>2.</b> <def>The House of Commons, or lower house of the British Parliament, consisting of representatives elected by the qualified voters of counties, boroughs, and universities.</def>

<blockquote>It is agreed that the <b>Commons</b> were no part of the great council till some ages after the Conquest. <i>Hume.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>3.</b> <def>Provisions; food; fare, -- as that provided at a common table in colleges and universities.</def>

<blockquote>Their <b>commons</b>, though but coarse, were nothing scant. <i>Dryden.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>4.</b> <def>A club or association for boarding at a common table, as in a college, the members sharing the expenses equally; <as>as, to board in <ex>commons</ex></as>.</def>

<p><b>5.</b> <def>A common; public pasture ground.</def>

<blockquote>To shake his ears, and graze in <b>commons</b>. <i>Shak.</i></blockquote>

<cs><col>Doctors' Commons</col>, <cd>a place near St. Paul's Chuchyard 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.</cd> -- <col>To be on short commons</col>, <cd>to have small allowance of food. <mark>[Colloq.]</mark></cd></cs>

<h1>Common sense</h1> <Xpage=286>

<hw>Com"mon sense"</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>. <def>See <cref>Common sense</cref>, under <er>Sense</er>.</def>

<h1>Commonty</h1> <Xpage=286>

<hw>Com"mon*ty</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <fld>(Scots Law)</fld> <def>A common; a piece of land in which two or more persons have a common right.</def>