toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

plebeian
in a sentence

show 85 more with this conextual meaning
  • But then the adoration of Franklin to be found in all quarters was extraordinary, as Adams would later recount: His name was familiar to government and people, to kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as well as plebeians, to such a degree that there was scarcely a peasant or citizen, a valet de chambre, coachman or footman, a lady's chambermaid or a scullion in a kitchen, who was not familiar with it, and who did not consider him as a friend of humankind.†   (source)
  • In the conittia tribuia, all citizens could vote, so the plebeian interest predominated.†   (source)
  • The ashtrays (Leslie later elaborated) were of the type everyone was familiar with: usually black, circular, and stamped with such inscriptions as STORK CLUB, "2 I", EL MOROCCO or, in more plebeian settings, BETTY'S PLACE and JOE'S BAR.†   (source)
  • Mine was chaotic, plebeian, and disjointed.†   (source)
  • The patricians engaged in a perpetual struggle with the plebeians for the preservation of their ancient authorities and dignities;   (source)
  • Bekkar's much smaller and usually filled with swindling Mercators and Plebeian drunks.†   (source)
  • Has the Resistance been bribing some Plebeian drudge to sneak you in?†   (source)
  • Helping their Plebeian father with his smithing?†   (source)
  • Even the lowest-born Plebeian can marry high, if he becomes a Mask.†   (source)
  • The only Plebeians are the stable hands.†   (source)
  • His wife, on the other hand, was vivacious and had a plebeian spark of sharp wit that gave a more human note to her elegance.†   (source)
  • At last, in the colorful language of her better days, she allowed herself to confide in her daughter-in-law, with whom she had always maintained a certain plebeian camaraderie.†   (source)
  • This is what we can afford; but also there's an unspoken rule that the food has to be unwaveringly plebeian.†   (source)
  • Amaranta, was so scandalized with the plebeian invasion that she went back to eating in the kitchen as in olden days.†   (source)
  • Unsettled, I quicken my pace, eventually persuading an elderly Plebeian man to direct me to Teluman's forge.†   (source)
  • Even when I was smuggling him out of the damn city, all he could talk about was the fact that Marcus was a Plebeian.†   (source)
  • As it is, the Black Guard chose not to investigate once I reminded them that the Farrars are lowborn Plebeian scum and you're from the finest house in the Empire.†   (source)
  • You Plebeian trash —†   (source)
  • The city passes in a blur of gaping Plebeians, muttering auxes, and a riot of merchants and their stalls.†   (source)
  • A silver-haired Martial with a soldier's build—the captain, I assume—is overseeing a group of Plebeians and Scholar slaves stacking boxes of cargo.†   (source)
  • …mirror, seen nothing amiss in my physiognomy, indeed I must say modestly that all is well: my strong nose and brown intelligent eyes, good complexion, excellent bone structure (not so fine, thank God, as to appear "aristocratic," but possessing enough angularities to prevent my looking coarsely plebeian) and rather humorous mouth and chin all merge into a face that could reasonably be called handsome, though it is certainly far from the stereotype handsomeness of a V italic ad.†   (source)
  • But she chatted about penniless girls who hooked brilliant young men, about promising boys whose careers had been wrecked by marriage to the wrong woman; and she read to him every newspaper account of a celebrity divorcing his plebeian wife who could not live up to his eminent position.†   (source)
  • Mrs Behn was a middle-class woman with all the plebeian virtues of humour, vitality and courage; a woman forced by the death of her husband and some unfortunate adventures of her own to make her living by her wits.†   (source)
  • St. Cyr and his kin had found their masters, in those same plebeians whom they had despised.†   (source)
  • The prescription I would offer, fair lady, is called by a very plebeian name: Work!†   (source)
  • The St. Justs' are quite plebeian, and the republican government employs many spies.†   (source)
  • I had forgotten I was a plebeian, I was remembering I was a man.†   (source)
  • It was a fair parallel between new Plebeianism and old Gentility.†   (source)
  • Now (this is entirely between ourselves), is she very plebeian?'†   (source)
  • Thither, too, thronged the plebeian classes as freely as their betters, and in larger number.†   (source)
  • Peter—you are the most disgusting plebeian I have ever met in all my life.†   (source)
  • …to raise my aunt's head from her pillow, the same air of preraphaelite simplicity and zeal which the little angels in the has-reliefs wear, who throng, with tapers in their hands, about the deathbed of Our Lady, as though those carved faces of stone, naked and grey like trees in winter, were, like them, asleep only, storing up life and waiting to flower again in countless plebeian faces, reverend and cunning as the face of Theodore, and glowing with the ruddy brilliance of ripe apples.†   (source)
  • This was fun for a while, but he essayed a cigarette in his exaltation, and succumbed to a vulgar, plebeian reaction.†   (source)
  • Joachim's transfer into this stately container trimmed with rings and lion's heads was strictly a one-man job, or so the fellow who brought it claimed, an associate of the undertaking establishment that had been hired, who was dressed in a short, black frock coat and wore a wedding ring on his plebeian hand, the yellow circlet embedded deep in flesh, which had, so to speak, overgrown it.†   (source)
  • Then followed such a thing as England had never seen before—the sacred person of the heir to the throne rudely buffeted by plebeian hands, and set upon and torn by dogs.†   (source)
  • …and doing homage for them to the guests, a gate-keeper, a major-domo, a steward (worthy men who spent the rest of the week in semi-independence in their own domains, dined there by themselves like small shopkeepers, and might to-morrow lapse to the plebeian service of some successful doctor or industrial magnate), scrupulous in carrying out to the letter all the instructions that had been heaped upon them before they were allowed to don the brilliant livery which they wore only at long…†   (source)
  • There were three or four inconspicuous and quite startled boys from Lawrenceville, two amateur wild men from a New York private school (Kerry Holiday christened them the "plebeian drunks"), a Jewish youth, also from New York, and, as compensation for Amory, the two Holidays, to whom he took an instant fancy.†   (source)
  • It was a boy, bareheaded, ill shod, and clothed in coarse plebeian garments that were falling to rags.†   (source)
  • …was obliged, in order to console herself for not being quite on a level with the rest of the Guermantes, to repeat to herself incessantly that it was owing to the uncompromising rigidity of her principles and pride that she saw so little of them, the constant iteration had gradually remoulded her body, and had given her a sort of 'bearing' which was accepted by the plebeian as a sign of breeding, and even kindled, at times, a momentary spark in the jaded eyes of old gentlemen in clubs.†   (source)
  • They filled the Jewish youth's bed with lemon pie; they put out the gas all over the house every night by blowing into the jet in Amory's room, to the bewilderment of Mrs. Twelve and the local plumber; they set up the effects of the plebeian drunks—pictures, books, and furniture—in the bathroom, to the confusion of the pair, who hazily discovered the transposition on their return from a Trenton spree; they were disappointed beyond measure when the plebeian drunks decided to take it as…†   (source)
  • "—holding the garment up and viewing it admiringly—"they have a grandeur and a majesty that do cause these small stingy ones of the tailor-man to look mightily paltry and plebeian— " 'She loved her husband dearilee, But another man he loved she,—'†   (source)
  • …before even I could pronounce their charming name—a name fit for the Prince in some French fairy-tale; colonists, perhaps, in some far distant century from Asia, but naturalised now for ever in the village, well satisfied with their modest horizon, rejoicing in the sunshine and the water's edge, faithful to their little glimpse of the railway-station; yet keeping, none the less, as do some of our old paintings, in their plebeian simplicity, a poetic scintillation from the golden East.†   (source)
  • The house was packed, both in the smart orchestra boxes and in the pit, as well as in the more plebeian balconies and galleries above.†   (source)
  • Years ago, Armand, her dear brother, loved Angele de St. Cyr, but St. Just was a plebeian, and the Marquis full of the pride and arrogant prejudices of his caste.†   (source)
  • That he, a plebeian, had dared to love the daughter of the aristocrat; for that he was waylaid and thrashed …. thrashed like a dog within an inch of his life!†   (source)
  • The haughty air of the Flemish hosier, by humiliating the courtiers, had touched in all these plebeian souls that latent sentiment of dignity still vague and indistinct in the fifteenth century.†   (source)
  • But when, as in the case of Nicholas the Czar, the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain; then, the plebeian herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization.†   (source)
  • The struggle between the patricians and plebeians of Rome must be considered in the same light: it was simply an intestine feud between the elder and younger branches of the same family.†   (source)
  • Be that as it may, he had directed Mrs. Pocket to be brought up from her cradle as one who in the nature of things must marry a title, and who was to be guarded from the acquisition of plebeian domestic knowledge.†   (source)
  • At sight of the dense volumes of smoke, mingled with vivid jets of flame, that gushed and eddied forth from this immense pile of earthly distinctions, the multitude of plebeian spectators set up a joyous shout, and clapped their hands with an emphasis that made the welkin echo.†   (source)
  • The page disappeared on this errand, and after a short interval, during which not a word was spoken on either side, opened the door for an important gentleman of about eight-and-thirty, of rather plebeian countenance, and with a very light head of hair, who leant over Mrs Wititterly for a little time, and conversed with her in whispers.†   (source)
  • Deep ruffs, painfully wrought bands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves, were all deemed necessary to the official state of men assuming the reins of power, and were readily allowed to individuals dignified by rank or wealth, even while sumptuary laws forbade these and similar extravagances to the plebeian order.†   (source)
  • Villefort, as we have seen, belonged to the aristocratic party at Marseilles, Morrel to the plebeian; the first was a royalist, the other suspected of Bonapartism.†   (source)
  • I had always felt aversion to my uncourtly patronymic, and its very common, if not plebeian praenomen.†   (source)
  • A more plebeian one will answer my purpose just as well, and the pleasure of knowing whose heart my old one beats against—well, I won't speak of that.†   (source)
  • In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.†   (source)
  • Some attempts had been made, I noticed, to infuse new blood into this dwindling frame, by repairing the costly old wood-work here and there with common deal; but it was like the marriage of a reduced old noble to a plebeian pauper, and each party to the ill-assorted union shrunk away from the other.†   (source)
  • This displacement, which places the "elegant" name on the plebeian and the rustic name on the aristocrat, is nothing else than an eddy of equality.†   (source)
  • My brother Peter is every bit as plebeian as anyone that walks in two shoes— (laughter and hisses) Peter Stockmann.†   (source)
  • Rochester might probably win that noble lady's love, if he chose to strive for it; is it likely he would waste a serious thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?'†   (source)
  • Fauchelevent belonged, in fact, to that species, which the impertinent and flippant vocabulary of the last century qualified as demi-bourgeois, demi-lout, and which the metaphors showered by the chateau upon the thatched cottage ticketed in the pigeon-hole of the plebeian: rather rustic, rather citified; pepper and salt.†   (source)
  • He was dressed in a common gray blouse and velvet cap, but his carefully arranged hair, beard and mustache, all of the richest and glossiest black, ill accorded with his plebeian attire.†   (source)
  • I smiled as I unfolded it, and devised how I would tease you about your aristocratic tastes, and your efforts to masque your plebeian bride in the attributes of a peeress.†   (source)
  • Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.†   (source)
  • Headsmen's axes, with the rust of noble and royal blood upon them, and a vast collection of halters that had choked the breath of plebeian victims, were thrown in together.†   (source)
  • 'Really, ma'am,' returned Clennam, 'I am so undoubtedly plebeian myself, that I do not feel qualified to judge.'†   (source)
  • It was already thronged with the craftsmen and other plebeian inhabitants of the town, in considerable numbers, among whom, likewise, were many rough figures, whose attire of deer-skins marked them as belonging to some of the forest settlements, which surrounded the little metropolis of the colony.†   (source)
  • It being her first day of complete estrangement from rural objects, Phoebe found an unexpected charm in this little nook of grass, and foliage, and aristocratic flowers, and plebeian vegetables.†   (source)
  • "It is true," said the baroness, with that strange simplicity sometimes met with among fashionable ladies, and of which plebeian intercourse can never entirely deprive them,—"it is very true that had not the Morcerfs hesitated, my daughter would have married Monsieur Albert.†   (source)
  • The departure for Cythera! exclaims Watteau; Lancret, the painter of plebeians, contemplates his bourgeois, who have flitted away into the azure sky; Diderot stretches out his arms to all these love idyls, and d'Urfe mingles druids with them.†   (source)
  • More than once she thought of revealing all to her grandmother, and she would not have hesitated a moment, if Maximilian Morrel had been named Albert de Morcerf or Raoul de Chateau-Renaud; but Morrel was of plebeian extraction, and Valentine knew how the haughty Marquise de Saint-Meran despised all who were not noble.†   (source)
  • And we have stolen upon Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon, too irreverently, at the instant of time when the patrician lady is to be transformed into the plebeian woman.†   (source)
  • The Pyncheons, if all stories were true, haughtily as they bore themselves in the noonday streets of their native town, were no better than bond-servants to these plebeian Maules, on entering the topsy-turvy commonwealth of sleep.†   (source)
  • At last, after creeping, as it were, for such a length of time along the utmost verge of the opaque puddle of obscurity, they had taken that downright plunge which, sooner or later, is the destiny of all families, whether princely or plebeian.†   (source)
  • They were generally poverty-stricken; always plebeian and obscure; working with unsuccessful diligence at handicrafts; laboring on the wharves, or following the sea, as sailors before the mast; living here and there about the town, in hired tenements, and coming finally to the almshouse as the natural home of their old age.†   (source)
  • This plebeian Don Juan observed me from behind a hackney car and sent me in double envelopes an obscene photograph, such as are sold after dark on Paris boulevards, insulting to any lady.†   (source)
  • And do not suppose, senor, that I apply the term vulgar here merely to plebeians and the lower orders; for everyone who is ignorant, be he lord or prince, may and should be included among the vulgar.†   (source)
  • Let him take thee And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians: Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown For poor'st diminutives, for doits; and let Patient Octavia plough thy visage up With her prepared nails.†   (source)
  • The patricians engaged in a perpetual struggle with the plebeians for the preservation of their ancient authorities and dignities; the Consuls, who were generally chosen out of the former body, were commonly united by the personal interest they had in the defense of the privileges of their order.†   (source)
  • Perhaps the love of glory only is at the bottom of this; so that the fair conclusion seems to be, that our countrymen have more of that love, and more of bravery, than any other plebeians.†   (source)
  • As for example, that Prayers, and Thanksgiving, be made in Words and Phrases, not sudden, nor light, nor Plebeian; but beautifull and well composed; For else we do not God as much honour as we can.†   (source)
  • Of plebeian lineages I have nothing to say, save that they merely serve to swell the number of those that live, without any eminence to entitle them to any fame or praise beyond this.†   (source)
  • Factions For Government And as Factions for Kindred, so also Factions for Government of Religion, as of Papists, Protestants, &c. or of State, as Patricians, and Plebeians of old time in Rome, and of Aristocraticalls and Democraticalls of old time in Greece, are unjust, as being contrary to the peace and safety of the people, and a taking of the Sword out of the hand of the Soveraign.†   (source)
  • …greatness of their origin; those, again, that from a great beginning have ended in a point like a pyramid, having reduced and lessened their original greatness till it has come to nought, like the point of a pyramid, which, relatively to its base or foundation, is nothing; and then there are those—and it is they that are the most numerous—that have had neither an illustrious beginning nor a remarkable mid-course, and so will have an end without a name, like an ordinary plebeian line.†   (source)
  • THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE God bless me, gentle (or it may be plebeian) reader, how eagerly must thou be looking forward to this preface, expecting to find there retaliation, scolding, and abuse against the author of the second Don Quixote—I mean him who was, they say, begotten at Tordesillas and born at Tarragona!†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)