Common

Common, kom′un, adj. belonging equally to more than one: public: general: usual: frequent: ordinary: easy to be had: of little value: vulgar: of low degree.—n. (Shak.) the commonalty: a tract of open land, used in common by the inhabitants of a town, parish, &c.—v.i. (Shak.) to share.—adj. Common′able, held in common.—ns. Comm′onage, right of pasturing on a common: the right of using anything in common: a common; Comm′onalty, the general body of the people without any distinction of rank or authority; Comm′oner, one of the common people, as opposed to the nobles: a member of the House of Commons: at Oxford, a student who pays for his commons.—adv. Comm′only.—ns. Comm′onness; Comm′onplace, a common topic or subject: a platitude: a memorandum: a note.—adj. common: hackneyed.—v.i. to make notes: to put in a commonplace-book.—n. Comm′onplace-book, a note or memorandum book.—n.pl. Comm′ons, the common people: their representatives—i.e. the lower House of Parliament or House of Commons: common land: food at a common table: at Oxford, rations served at a fixed rate from the college buttery: food in general, rations.—n. Comm′on-sense, average understanding: good sense or practical sagacity: the opinion of a community: the universally admitted impressions of mankind.—Common Bench, Common Pleas, one of the divisions of the High Court of Justice; Common forms, the ordinary clauses which are of frequent occurrence in identical terms in writs and deeds; Common law, in England, the ancient customary law of the land; Common Prayer (Book of), the liturgy of the Church of England; Common-riding, the Scotch equivalent of Beating the Bounds (see Beat); Common room, in schools, colleges, &c., a room to which the members have common access.—In common, together: equally with others.—Make common cause with, to cast in one's lot with: to have the same interests and aims with.—Philosophy of common-sense, that school of philosophy which takes the universally admitted impressions of mankind as corresponding to the facts of things without any further scrutiny.—Short commons, scant fare, insufficient supply of rations.—The common, that which is common or usual; The common good, the interest of the community at large: the corporate property of a burgh in Scotland; The common people, the people in general. [Fr. commun—L. communis, prob. from com, together, and munis, serving, obliging.]