PATRICIAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does patrician mean? 

• PATRICIAN (noun)
  The noun PATRICIAN has 2 senses:

1. a person of refined upbringing and manners

2. a member of the aristocracy

  Familiarity information: PATRICIAN used as a noun is rare.

• PATRICIAN (adjective)
  The adjective PATRICIAN has 2 senses:

1. befitting a person of noble origin

2. belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy

  Familiarity information: PATRICIAN used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PATRICIAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person of refined upbringing and manners

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

adult; grownup (a fully developed person from maturity onward)

Derivation:

patrician (belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A member of the aristocracy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

aristocrat; blue blood; patrician

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

leader (a person who rules or guides or inspires others)

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

baronet; Bart (a member of the British order of honor; ranks below a baron but above a knight)

brahman; brahmin (a member of a social and cultural elite (especially a descendant of an old New England family))

female aristocrat (a woman who is an aristocrat)

Highness ((Your Highness or His Highness or Her Highness) title used to address a royal person)

male aristocrat (a man who is an aristocrat)

prince (a male member of a royal family other than the sovereign (especially the son of a sovereign))

princess (a female member of a royal family other than the queen (especially the daughter of a sovereign))

raja; rajah (a prince or king in India)

ranee; rani ((the feminine of raja) a Hindu princess or the wife of a raja)

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

aristocracy; nobility (a privileged class holding hereditary titles)

Derivation:

patrician (belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy)

• PATRICIAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Befitting a person of noble origin

Context example:

a patrician nose

Similar:

refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy

Synonyms:

aristocratic; aristocratical; blue; blue-blooded; gentle; patrician

Context example:

patrician tastes

Similar:

noble (of or belonging to or constituting the hereditary aristocracy especially as derived from feudal times)

Derivation:

patrician (a member of the aristocracy)

patrician (a person of refined upbringing and manners)

 Context examples 

We articled clerks, as germs of the patrician order of proctors, were treated with so much consideration, that I was almost my own master at all times.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

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)

Did any one, be it East End rough or West End patrician, intrude within the outer ropes, this corp of guardians neither argued nor expostulated, but they fell upon the offender and laced him with their whips until he escaped back out of the forbidden ground.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)