PUBLIC WORKS • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Public works

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/pˈəblɪk wərks/ Listen

adjective

Public adj.

1.

Of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; opposed to private; as, the public treasury. "To the public good Private respects must yield." "He (Alexander Hamilton) touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprung upon its feet."

2.

Open to the knowledge or view of all; general; common; notorious; as, public report; public scandal. "Joseph,... not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily."

3.

Open to common or general use; as, a public road; a public house. "The public street."

public act or public statute (Law), an act or statute affecting matters of public concern. Of such statutes the courts take judicial notice.

Public credit. See under Credit.

Public funds. See Fund, 3.

Public house, an inn, or house of entertainment.

Public law.

(a)

See International law, under International.

(b)

A public act or statute.

Public nuisance. (Law) See under Nuisance.

Public orator. (Eng. Universities) See Orator, 3.

Public stores, military and naval stores, equipments, etc.

Public works, all fixed works built by civil engineers for public use, as railways, docks, canals, etc.; but strictly, military and civil engineering works constructed at the public cost.

See images of 'Public works'

Etymology of 'Public works'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Public works" Quotes from Famous Books

... swinging from one hinge, the chimney fallen, every paling of the fence gone and the roof of the little barn caved in. Smoke was coming from Steve Hawn's chimney, and in the porch were two or three slatternly negro women. The boy knew the low, sinister meaning of their presence on public works; and these blacks ate, slept, and plied their trade in the home of Mavis Hawn! All the old rebellion and rage of his early years came back to him and boiled the more fiercely that his mother's home could never be hers, nor Mavis's hers—for a twofold reason now—again. ...

— The Heart Of The Hills • John Fox, Jr.

... simple as her husband, benevolent, pure in character, and entirely unambitious. The hold which Trajan acquired over the people was no less firm than that which he maintained upon the army and the Senate. His largesses, his distributions of food, his public works, and his spectacles were all on a generous scale. The exhibitions in the arena were perhaps at their zenith during his tenure of power. Though, for some unexplained reason, he abolished the mimes, so beloved of the ...

— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 1 of 8 • Various

... an excavation camp which has just been sanctioned by the Minister of Public Works. We are engaged in making temporary researches. ...

— There was a King in Egypt • Norma Lorimer

... the injustice done to them. They had been definitely refused all voice in the affairs of the State, and they already contributed nine-tenths of the revenue. They received in return an infinitesimal portion in the shape of civil administration and public works, and they were distinctly not in the humour to be placed at the mercy of Boer officials, who would undoubtedly mulct them and spare the burghers. Protests were made; and five of the men commandeered in Pretoria, having point-blank refused to comply with the orders, were placed under ...

— The Transvaal from Within - A Private Record of Public Affairs • J. P. Fitzpatrick

... be no public works in future that does not bear my signature. In a word, I will assert myself, ...

— Skookum Chuck Fables - Bits of History, Through the Microscope • Skookum Chuck (pseud for R.D. Cumming)

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