Definition of "public" []

• Of, concerning, or affecting the community or the people: the public good. (adjective)
• Maintained for or used by the people or community: a public park. (adjective)
• Capitalized in shares of stock that can be traded on the open market: a public company. (adjective)
• Participated in or attended by the people or community: "Opinions are formed in a process of open discussion and public debate” ( Hannah Arendt). (adjective)
• Connected with or acting on behalf of the people, community, or government: public office. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Quote: The current tent city, along the American River, has prompted concern by The American River Parkway Preservation Society, which has written on its blog: “If local government truly wishes to establish tent cities they need to be some place where the surrounding communities are not materially and criminogenically degraded — as the first call of public leadership is to *protect the public*.”"
• "If AutoAdmit wasn't a public forum in the sense of its content being openly and freely available to the public*, what is?"
• "Certainly the best works and of greatest merit for the public have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, which both in affection and means have married and endowed the public…."