public

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Of, concerning, or affecting the community or the people: the public good.
2. adj. Maintained for or used by the people or community: a public park.
3. adj. Capitalized in shares of stock that can be traded on the open market: a public company.
4. adj. Participated in or attended by the people or community: "Opinions are formed in a process of open discussion and public debate” ( Hannah Arendt).
5. adj. Connected with or acting on behalf of the people, community, or government: public office.
6. adj. Enrolled in or attending a public school: transit passes for public students.
7. adj. Open to the knowledge or judgment of all: a public scandal.
8. n. The community or the people as a whole.
9. n. A group of people sharing a common interest: the reading public.
10. n. Admirers or followers, especially of a famous person. See Usage Note at collective noun.
11. idiom. go public To become publicly owned, by launching shares of stock onto the open market: The company went public after having been closely held for 12 years.
12. idiom. go public with Informal To reveal to the public a previously unknown or secret piece of information: The president finally had to go public with the scandal.
13. idiom. in public In such a way as to be visible to the scrutiny of the people: "A career is born in public—talent in privacy” ( Marilyn Monroe).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Of or belonging to the people at large; relating to or affecting the whole people of a state, nation, or community: opposed to private: as, the public good; public affairs; the public service; a public calamity; public opinion.
2. Open to all the people; shared in or to be shared or participated in or enjoyed by people at large; not limited or restricted to any particular class of the community: as, a public meeting; public worship; a public subscription; a public road; a public house; public baths.
3. Open to the view or knowledge of all; notorious: as, a public exposure; public scandal.
4. Regarding or directed to the interests of the community at large, and not limited or confined to private, personal, or selfish matters or interests: as, public spirit; a public benefaction.
5. Public house and public place are used in numerous statutes against immoral practices, gaming, prostitution, etc., with varying limitations of meaning, but generally implying a place to which any one may have access without trespassing.
6. Warehouses to which dutiable goods are sent for appraisement; bonded warehouses, or stores in which goods are held under bond for duty until sold or exported.
7. A use so intimately allied to or affecting the public welfare or convenience that the state may regulate it as to the management or charges: thus, the great grain-elevators of modern commerce, standing between the wharves of lake or ocean navigation and the termini of trunk lines of railway, have been held to be so affected with a public use that the state may regulate by law the rates of charges.
8. In patent law, use without restriction by one or more members of the community, as distinguished from use by the inventor: thus, an inventor of a secret spring who should allow its use by others without patenting it might be deemed to allow its public use, although, from its peculiarities of structure and relation, its use could not be seen by the public.
9. n. The general body of people constituting a nation, state, or community; the people, indefinitely: with the.
10. n. A public house.

Wiktionary

1. adj. of a company Traded publicly via a stock market.
2. n. The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; -- opposed to private.
2. adj. Open to the knowledge or view of all; general; common; notorious.
3. adj. Open to common or general use
4. n. The general body of mankind, or of a nation, state, or community; the people, indefinitely; ; also, a particular body or aggregation of people.
5. n. Scot. A public house; an inn.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a body of people sharing some common interest
2. n. people in general considered as a whole
3. adj. affecting the people or community as a whole
4. adj. not private; open to or concerning the people as a whole