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Vulgar   /vˈəlgər/   Listen
adjective
Vulgar  adj.  
1.
Of or pertaining to the mass, or multitude, of people; common; general; ordinary; public; hence, in general use; vernacular. "As common as any the most vulgar thing to sense. " "Things vulgar, and well-weighed, scarce worth the praise." "It might be more useful to the English reader... to write in our vulgar language." "The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class."
2.
Belonging or relating to the common people, as distinguished from the cultivated or educated; pertaining to common life; plebeian; not select or distinguished; hence, sometimes, of little or no value. "Like the vulgar sort of market men." "Men who have passed all their time in low and vulgar life." "In reading an account of a battle, we follow the hero with our whole attention, but seldom reflect on the vulgar heaps of slaughter."
3.
Hence, lacking cultivation or refinement; rustic; boorish; also, offensive to good taste or refined feelings; low; coarse; mean; base; as, vulgar men, minds, language, or manners. "Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar."
Vulgar fraction. (Arith.) See under Fraction.



noun
Vulgar  n.  
1.
One of the common people; a vulgar person. (Obs.) "These vile vulgars are extremely proud."
2.
The vernacular, or common language. (Obs.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Vulgar" Quotes from Famous Books



... progress of time, winter, ushered into existence by the howling of storms, and the rushing of impetuous torrents, and contemplating, with the satisfaction of a giant, the ruins of the year, still affords ample food for enjoyments, which the vulgar never dream of, if sympathy and association diffuse their attractive spells around us! In the bosom of retirement, how delightful is it to feel exempt from the mean intrigues, the endless difficulties ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, No. - 287, December 15, 1827 • Various

... of the Burgesses, then shall it fail indeed. Had it been the speech of the King's great barons and the bishops 'twere different. But dost fancy that the great barons would allow that their weighty discourses be reduced to common speech so that even the vulgar may read it and haply here and there fathom their very thought itself,—and the bishops, the great prelates, to submit their ideas to the vulgar hand of a common printer, framing them into mere sentences! 'Tis unthinkable ...
— Moonbeams From the Larger Lunacy • Stephen Leacock

... and call on God as witness, priest, and wedding-guest—then all prudery will be destroyed; there will be espousals everywhere, and we shall rise the same as the birds to the grandeur of nature. My criticism on books of the sort of George Sand's has then no value except in the vulgar order of things past, and therefore I trust she will not be offended by it. The admiration I profess for her ought to make her excuse these remarks, which have their origin in the infelicity of my age. Once I should have been ...
— International Weekly Miscellany Vol. I. No. 3, July 15, 1850 • Various

... ill-luck would have it, Miss Chapman chanced to let her eyes stray in their direction; and having fingered her chain indecisively for a little, said: "It seems a pity, doesn't it, Miss Day, that that nice little girl should get in with that vulgar set?" ...
— The Getting of Wisdom • Henry Handel Richardson

... suburbs of Elbury, and always had a girl or two under her. She had neither had the education, nor the good training in service, that had fallen to Mrs. King's lot; and her way of life did not lead to softening her tongue or temper. Ellen called her vulgar, and though that is not a nice word to use, she was coarse in her ways of talking and thinking, loud-voiced, and unmannerly, although ...
— Friarswood Post-Office • Charlotte M. Yonge


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