Public vs Back - What's the difference?
public | back |
Able to be seen or known by everyone; open to general view, happening without concealment.
* 2011 , Sandra Laville, The Guardian , 18 Apr 2011:
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Pertaining to all the people as a whole (as opposed a private group); concerning the whole country, community etc.
* 2010 , Adam Vaughan, The Guardian , 16 Sep 2010:
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot
, title=Money just makes the rich suffer, volume=188, issue=23, page=19
, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the state on behalf of the community.
* , chapter=22
, title= * 2004 , The Guardian , Leader, 18 Jun 2004:
Open to all members of a community; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes.
* 2011 , David Smith, The Guardian , 10 May 2011:
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
, volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (of a company) Traded publicly via a stock market.
The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group.
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=2 * 2007 May 4, Martin Jacques,
(archaic) A public house; an inn.
(not comparable) Near the rear.
* , chapter=19
, title= (not comparable) Not current.
(not comparable) Far from the main area.
In arrear; overdue.
Moving or operating backward.
(comparable, phonetics) Produced in the back of the mouth.
(not comparable) To or in a previous condition or place.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2
, passage=We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Away from the front or from an edge.
* , chapter=1
, title= In a manner that impedes.
In a reciprocal manner.
The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly.
:
*
*:It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
#The spine and associated tissues.
#:
# Large and attractive buttocks.
#*{{quote-book, 2002, (George Pelecanos), title=
, passage= He got his hand on her behind and caressed her firm, ample flesh.
#(lb) The part of a piece of clothing which covers the back.
#:
#The backrest, the part of a piece of furniture which receives the human back.
#:
#(lb) That part of the body that bears clothing.
#*{{quote-book, 1604, (William Shakespeare),
, passage=Do thou but think / What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back / From such a filthy vice}}
That which is farthest away from the front.
:
#The side of any object which is opposite the front or useful side.
#:
##The edge of a book which is bound.
##:
##(lb) The inside margin of a page.
##*, page=472, edition=1965 Ayer Publishing ed., title=
, passage=Convenience and custom have familiarised us to the printed page being a little higher than the middle of the leaf, and to its having a little more margin at the fore edge than in the back .}}
##The side of a blade opposite the side used for cutting.
##:
#The reverse side; the side that is not normally seen.
#:
#Area behind, such as the backyard of a house.
#:
#The part of something that goes last.
#:
#(lb) In some team sports, a position behind most players on the team.
#:
#*{{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 28, author=Kevin Darlin, work=BBC
, title= (lb) Upper part of a natural object which is considered to resemble an animal's back.
:
A support or resource in reserve.
*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
*:This project / Should have a back or second, that might hold, / If this should blast in proof.
(lb) The keel and keelson of a ship.
:
(lb) The roof of a horizontal underground passage.
*{{quote-book, 1911, Robert Bruce Brinsmade, title=
, passage=The stope is kept full of broken ore, sufficient only being drawn to leave a working space between the floor of broken ore and the back of the stope.}}
Effort, usually physical.
:
A non-alcoholic drink (often water or a soft drink), to go with hard liquor or a cocktail.
:
Among leather dealers, one of the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
*1848 , Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Maine Reports (volume 6, page 397)
*:.
To go in the reverse direction.
* , chapter=1
, title= To support.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 9, author=Owen Phillips, work=BBC Sport
, title= (nautical, of the wind) To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
(nautical, of a square sail) To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship.
(nautical, of an anchor) To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power.
(UK, of a hunting dog) To stand still behind another dog which has pointed.
To push or force backwards.
(obsolete) To get upon the back of; to mount.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
(obsolete) To place or seat upon the back.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
To make a back for; to furnish with a back.
To adjoin behind; to be at the back of.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
* (Thomas Henry Huxley) (1825-1895)
*
*:So this was my future home, I thought!Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
To write upon the back of, possibly as an endorsement.
(legal, of a justice of the peace) To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender).
To row backward with (oars).
A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc.
A ferryboat.
As an adjective public
is public.As a noun back is
a small stream or brook.public
English
(wikipedia public)Alternative forms
* publick, publicke, publique (all obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- Earlier this month Godwin had to make a public apology to the family of Daniel Morgan after the collapse of a £30m inquiry into his murder in 1987.
Our banks are out of control, passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.}}
- A mere 3% of the more than 1,000 people interviewed said they actually knew what the conference was about. It seems safe to say public awareness of the Convention on Biological Awareness in Nagoya - and its goal of safeguarding wildlife - is close to non-existent.
citation, passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.}}
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.}}
- But culture's total budget is a tiny proportion of all public spending; it is one of the government's most visible success stories.
- Some are left for dead on rubbish tips, in refuge bags or at public toilets.
Obama's once hip brand is now tainted, passage=Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.}}
Antonyms
* privateDerived terms
* go public * in public * initial public offering * public address system * public assistance * public domain * public eye * public figure * public good * public health * Public Health System * public holiday * public house * public intellectual * public interest * public intoxication * public key * public law * public leaning post * public library * Public Limited Liability Company * public office * public policy * public-private partnership * public property * public school * public servant * public service * public speaking * public transportation * public works * publican * publically * publicly held * publicnessNoun
(en noun)- Members of the public may not proceed beyond this point.
citation, passage=“Two or three months more went by?; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […]”}}
- Bush and Blair stand condemned by their own publics and face imminent political extinction.
- (Sir Walter Scott)
Usage notes
* Although generally considered uncountable, this noun does also have countable usage, as in the quotation above.Derived terms
* antipublic * general public * * public relations * public-spiritedStatistics
*External links
* * 1000 English basic words ----back
English
(wikipedia back)Etymology 1
(etyl) bak, from (etyl) 'bending'. The adverb represents an aphetic form of (aback).Adjective
(en adjective)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}
- back rent
- back action
Synonyms
* (near the rear) rear * (not current) former, previous * (far from the main area) remoteAntonyms
* (near the rear) front * (not current) current * (far from the main area) mainAdverb
(further)The new masters and commanders, passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned,
Noun
(en noun)Right as Rain: A Novel, isbn=0446610798, page=123
A Dictionary of the Art of Printing, isbn=0833731289
West Brom 1-3 Blackburn, passage=
Mining Without Timber, page=161
Synonyms
* (side opposite the visible side) reverse * (rear of the body) rear, backsideAntonyms
* (side opposite the front or useful side) front * (that which is farthest away from the front) frontCoordinate terms
* (non-alcoholic drink)Derived terms
* (non-alcoholic drink)Verb
(en verb)Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’
Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1 Denmark, passage=And Netherlands, backed by a typically noisy and colourful travelling support, started the second period in blistering fashion and could have had four goals within 10 minutes}}
- to back oxen
- I will back him [a horse] straight.
- Great Jupiter, upon his eagle backed , / Appeared to me.
- to back books
- a gardenwith a vineyard backed
- the chalk cliffs which back the beach
- to back''' a letter; to '''back a note or legal document
- to back the oars