PATRICIAN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Patrician

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/pətrˈɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Patrician n.

(Rom. Antiq.) Originally, a member of any of the families constituting the populus Romanus, or body of Roman citizens, before the development of the plebeian order; later, one who, by right of birth or by special privilege conferred, belonged to the nobility.

A person of high birth; a nobleman.

One familiar with the works of the Christian Fathers; one versed in patristic lore. (R.)

adjective

Patrician adj.

(Rom. Antiq.) Of or pertaining to the Roman patres (fathers) or senators, or patricians.

Of, pertaining to, or appropriate to, a person of high birth; noble; not plebeian. "Born in the patrician file of society." "His horse's hoofs wet with patrician blood."

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Etymology of 'Patrician'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Patrician" Quotes from Famous Books

... rare patrician features Eclipse the brows of ruddier gleam, So masquerade as rustic creatures Gay ...

— Enamels and Cameos and other Poems • Theophile Gautier

... sculptor to despair, as their muscles played like pulsing liquid beneath the tinted, velvet skin of wrists and forearms; her short skirt bared her shapely legs above the ankles half-way to the knees; her feet, never pinched by shoes and now quite bare, slender, graceful, patrician in their modelling, in strong contrast to the linsey-woolsey of her gown and rough surroundings, were as dainty as a ...

— In Old Kentucky • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey

... The patrician in literature is always an interesting spectacle. We are prone to regard his performance as a test of the worth of long descent and high breeding. If he does well, he vindicates the claims of his caste; if ill, we infer that inherited estates and blue blood are ...

— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various

... watched proceedings, and in case aught failed to please them, they would show resistance. Next they were invited inside. Later, however, the ex-tribunes were numbered with the senators, and finally some of the senators actually were permitted to be tribunes, unless a man chanced to be a patrician. Patricians the people would not accept: having chosen the tribunes to defend them against the patricians, and having advanced them to so great power, they dreaded lest one of them might turn his strength to contrary purposes and use it against them. But if a man abjured the rank given ...

— Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) • Cassius Dio

... were hurrying along the street that leads down from the Palatine Hill toward the Forum, and both were young. Their high shoes fastened with quadruple thongs and adorned with small silver crescents proclaimed their patrician rank. ...

— The Lion's Brood • Duffield Osborne

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