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public school Definition

public school

noun

  1. ☆ in the U.S., an elementary or secondary school that is part of a system of free schools maintained by public taxes and supervised by local authorities
  2. in much of Great Britain, any of a number of endowed, private boarding schools, generally not coeducational, which prepare students for the universities

public school Usage Examples

Adjective modifier

  • British: Its influence is even felt at a British public school.
public-school Quotes

Anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison. It is the people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums,Paul learned, who find prison so soul-destroying.

—Waugh, Evelyn Arthur StJohn

  That's the public-school system all over. They may kick you out but they never let you down.

—Waugh, Evelyn Arthur StJohn