PLEBEIAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does plebeian mean? 

• PLEBEIAN (noun)
  The noun PLEBEIAN has 1 sense:

1. one of the common people

  Familiarity information: PLEBEIAN used as a noun is very rare.

• PLEBEIAN (adjective)
  The adjective PLEBEIAN has 1 sense:

1. of or associated with the great masses of people

  Familiarity information: PLEBEIAN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLEBEIAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

One of the common people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

pleb; plebeian

Hypernyms ("plebeian" is a kind of...):

common man; common person; commoner (a person who holds no title)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plebeian"):

anti-intellectual; lowbrow; philistine (a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits)

Holonyms ("plebeian" is a member of...):

common people; folk; folks (people in general (often used in the plural))

Derivation:

plebeian (of or associated with the great masses of people)

• PLEBEIAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or associated with the great masses of people

Synonyms:

common; plebeian; unwashed; vulgar

Context example:

the unwashed masses

Similar:

lowborn (of humble birth or origins)

Derivation:

pleb; plebeian (one of the common people)

 Context examples 

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.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In the club of the patrician and the plebeian gin-shop, in the coffee-house of the merchant or the barrack of the soldier, in London or the provinces, the same question was interesting the whole nation.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

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.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Whenever, in future, you should chance to fancy Mr. Rochester thinks well of you, take out these two pictures and compare them: say, 'Mr. 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?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)