COMMON, a.

1. Belonging equally to more than one, or to many indefinitely; as, life and sense are common to man and beast; the common privileges of citizens; the common wants of men.
2. Belonging to the public; having no separate owner. The right to a highway is common.
3. General; serving for the use of all; as, the common prayer.
4. Universal; belonging to all; as, the earth is said to be the common mother of mankind.
5. Public; general; frequent; as, common report.
6. Usual; ordinary; as, the common operations of nature; the common forms of conveyance; the common rules of civility.
7. Of no rank or superior excellence; ordinary. Applied to men, it signifies, not noble, not distinguished by noble descent, or not distinguished by office, character or talents; as, a common man; a common soldier. Applied to things, it signifies, not distinguished by excellence or superiority; as, a common essay; a common exertion. It however is not generally equivalent to mean, which expresses something lower in rank or estimation.
8. Prostitute; lewd; as, a common woman.
9. In grammar, such verbs as signify both action and passion, are called common; as, aspernor, I despise or am despised; also, such nouns as are both masculine and feminine, as parens.
10. A common bud, in botany, is one that contains both leaves and flowers; a common peduncle, one that bears several flowers; a common perianth, one that incloses several distinct fructifications; a common receptacle, one that connects several distinct fructifications. – Martyn. Common divisor, in mathematics, is a number or quantity that divides two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder. Common law, in Great Britain and the United States, the unwritten law, the law that receives its binding force from immemorial usage and universal reception, in distinction from the written or statute law. That body of rules, principles and customs which have been received from our ancestors, and by which courts have been governed in their judicial decisions. The evidence of this law is to be found in the reports of those decisions, and the records of the courts. Some of these rules may have originated in edicts or statutes which are now lost, or in the terms and conditions of particular grants or charters; but it is most probable that many of them originated in judicial decisions founded on natural justice and equity, or on local customs. Common pleas, in Great Britain, one of the king's courts, now held in Westminster Hall. It consists of a chief justice and three other justices, and has cognizance of all civil causes, real, personal or mixed, as well by original writ, as by removal from the inferior courts. A writ of error, in the nature of an appeal, lies from this court to the court of king's bench. – Blackstone. In some of the American states, a court of common pleas is an inferior court, whose jurisdiction is limited to a county, and it is sometimes called a county court. This court is variously constituted in different states, and its powers are defined by statutes. It has jurisdiction of civil causes, and of minor offenses; but its final jurisdiction is very limited; all causes of magnitude being removable to a higher court by appeal or by writ of error. Common prayer, the liturgy of the Church of England, which all the clergy of the Church are enjoined to use, under a penalty. – Encyc. Common recovery, a legal process for recovering an estate or barring entails. Common time, in music, duple or double time, when the semibreve is equal to two minims. In common, equally with another, or with others; to be equally used or participated by two or more; as tenants in common; to provide for children in common; to assign lands to two persons in common, or to twenty in common; we enjoy the bounties of Providence in common.

Commonly.

1. A tract of ground, the use of which is not appropriated to an individual, but belongs to the public or to a number. Thus we apply the word to an open ground or space in a highway, reserved for public use.
2. In law, an open ground, or that soil the use of which belongs equally to the inhabitants of a town or of a lordship, or to a certain number of proprietors; or the profit which a man has in the land of another; or a right which a person has to pasture his cattle on land of another, or to dig turf, or catch fish, or cut wood, or the like; called common of pasture, of turbary, of piscary, and of estovers. Common, or right of common, is appendant, appurtenant, because of vicinage, or in gross. Common appendant is a right belonging to the owners or occupiers of arable land to put commonable beasts upon the lord's waste, and upon the lands of other persons within the same manor. This is a matter of most universal right. Common appurtenant may be annexed to lands in other lordships, or extend to other beasts, besides those which are generally commonable; this is not of common right, but can be claimed only by immemorial usage and prescription. Common because of vicinage or neighborhood, is where the inhabitants of two townships, lying contiguous to each other, have usually intercommoned with one another, the beasts of the one straying into the other's fields; this is a permissive right. Common in gross or at large, is annexed to a man's person, being granted to him and his heirs by deed; or it may be claimed by prescriptive right, as by a parson of a church or other corporation sole. – Blackstone.

1. To have a joint right with others in common ground. – Johnson.
2. To board together; to eat at a table in common. – Encyc.

1. Belonging or relating equally, or similarly, to more than one] as, you and I have a common interest in the property.
   
   

   Though life and sense be common to men and brutes.
   Sir M. Hale.

2. The people; the community.
   
   
   [Obs.] "The weal o' the common." Shak.
3. To converse together; to discourse; to confer.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   Embassadors were sent upon both parts, and divers means of entreaty were commoned of.
   Grafton.

4. Belonging to or shared by, affecting or serving, all the members of a class, considered together; general; public; as, properties common to all plants; the common schools; the Book of Common Prayer.
   
   

   Such actions as the common good requireth.
   Hooker.

   The common enemy of man.
   Shak.

5. An inclosed or uninclosed tract of ground for pleasure, for pasturage, etc., the use of which belongs to the public; or to a number of persons.
6. To participate.
   
   
   [Obs.] Sir T. More.
7. Often met with; usual; frequent; customary.
   
   

   Grief more than common grief.
   Shak.

8. The right of taking a profit in the land of another, in common either with the owner or with other persons; -- so called from the community of interest which arises between the claimant of the right and the owner of the soil, or between the claimants and other commoners entitled to the same right.
   
   

   Common appendant, a right belonging to the owners or occupiers of arable land to put commonable beasts upon the waste land in the manor where they dwell. -- Common appurtenant, a similar right applying to lands in other manors, or extending to other beasts, besides those which are generally commonable, as hogs. -- Common because of vicinage or neighborhood, the right of the inhabitants of each of two townships, lying contiguous to each other, which have usually intercommoned with one another, to let their beasts stray into the other's fields. - - Common in gross or at large, a common annexed to a man's person, being granted to him and his heirs by deed; or it may be claimed by prescriptive right, as by a parson of a church or other corporation sole. Blackstone. -- Common of estovers, the right of taking wood from another's estate. -- Common of pasture, the right of feeding beasts on the land of another. Burill. -- Common of piscary, the right of fishing in waters belonging to another. -- Common of turbary, the right of digging turf upon the ground of another.

9. To have a joint right with others in common ground.
   
   
   Johnson.
10. Not distinguished or exceptional; inconspicuous; ordinary; plebeian; -- often in a depreciatory sense.
    
    

    The honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life.
    W. Irving.

    This fact was infamous
    And ill beseeming any common man,
    Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.
    Shak.

    Above the vulgar flight of common souls.
    A. Murphy.

11. To board together; to eat at a table in common.
12. Profane; polluted.
    
    
    [Obs.]

    What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
    Acts x. 15.

13. Given to habits of lewdness; prostitute.
    
    

    A dame who herself was common.
    L'Estrange.

    Common bar (Law) Same as Blank bar, under Blank. -- Common barrator (Law), one who makes a business of instigating litigation. -- Common Bench, a name sometimes given to the English Court of Common Pleas. -- Common brawler (Law), one addicted to public brawling and quarreling. See Brawler. -- Common carrier (Law), one who undertakes the office of carrying (goods or persons) for hire. Such a carrier is bound to carry in all cases when he has accommodation, and when his fixed price is tendered, and he is liable for all losses and injuries to the goods, except those which happen in consequence of the act of God, or of the enemies of the country, or of the owner of the property himself. -- Common chord (Mus.), a chord consisting of the fundamental tone, with its third and fifth. -- Common council, the representative (legislative) body, or the lower branch of the representative body, of a city or other municipal corporation. -- Common crier, the crier of a town or city. -- Common divisor (Math.), a number or quantity that divides two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder; a common measure. -- Common gender (Gram.), the gender comprising words that may be of either the masculine or the feminine gender. -- Common law, a system of jurisprudence developing under the guidance of the courts so as to apply a consistent and reasonable rule to each litigated case. It may be superseded by statute, but unless superseded it controls. Wharton. It is by others defined as the unwritten law (especially of England), the law that receives its binding force from immemorial usage and universal reception, as ascertained and expressed in the judgments of the courts. This term is often used in contradistinction from statute law. Many use it to designate a law common to the whole country. It is also used to designate the whole body of English (or other) law, as distinguished from its subdivisions, local, civil, admiralty, equity, etc. See Law. -- Common lawyer, one versed in common law. -- Common lewdness (Law), the habitual performance of lewd acts in public. -- Common multiple (Arith.) See under Multiple. -- Common noun (Gram.), the name of any one of a class of objects, as distinguished from a proper noun (the name of a particular person or thing). -- Common nuisance (Law), that which is deleterious to the health or comfort or sense of decency of the community at large. -- Common pleas, one of the three superior courts of common law at Westminster, presided over by a chief justice and four puisne judges. Its jurisdiction is confined to civil matters. Courts bearing this title exist in several of the United States, having, however, in some cases, both civil and criminal jurisdiction extending over the whole State. In other States the jurisdiction of the common pleas is limited to a county, and it is sometimes called a county court. Its powers are generally defined by statute. -- Common prayer, the liturgy of the Church of England, or of the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States, which all its clergy are enjoined to use. It is contained in the Book of Common Prayer. -- Common school, a school maintained at the public expense, and open to all. -- Common scold (Law), a woman addicted to scolding indiscriminately, in public. -- Common seal, a seal adopted and used by a corporation. -- Common sense. (a) A supposed sense which was held to be the common bond of all the others. [Obs.] Trench. (b) Sound judgment. See under Sense. -- Common time (Mus.), that variety of time in which the measure consists of two or of four equal portions. -- In common, equally with another, or with others; owned, shared, or used, in community with others; affecting or affected equally. -- Out of the common, uncommon; extraordinary. -- Tenant in common, one holding real or personal property in common with others, having distinct but undivided interests. See Joint tenant, under Joint. -- To make common cause with, to join or ally one's self with.

    Syn. -- General; public; popular; national; universal; frequent; ordinary; customary; usual; familiar; habitual; vulgar; mean; trite; stale; threadbare; commonplace. See Mutual, Ordinary, General.