Patrician
noun
A person of high social rank or noble by birth.
He was born into a patrician family.
Usage tips
Formal
adjective
Relating to people of high social rank.
He has a patrician taste in art.
Usage tips
Formal
noun
A wealthy upper-class citizen of ancient Rome.
The patricians were the ruling class of ancient Rome.
Usage tips
Formal
Historical
noun
In the early Christian church, a designation for a bishop or senior church authority.
In early Christianity, the term patrician was used to refer to the Pope and bishops.
Usage tips
Formal
Religious
noun
A person of high social rank or noble by birth.
He was born into a patrician family.
Usage tips
Formal
adjective
Relating to people of high social rank.
He has a patrician taste in art.
Usage tips
Formal
noun
A wealthy upper-class citizen of ancient Rome.
The patricians were the ruling class of ancient Rome.
Usage tips
Formal
Historical
noun
In the early Christian church, a designation for a bishop or senior church authority.
In early Christianity, the term patrician was used to refer to the Pope and bishops.
Usage tips
Formal
Religious
Definition 1 of 4
Pro Tip 1/2Nobility Usage
Use 'patrician' to refer to people with noble heritage, especially in historical or literary contexts.
Her patrician lineage could be traced back to medieval royalty.
Pro Tip 2/2Modern Connotation
'Patrician' implies class and elegance in today's usage, but can sound pretentious if overused.
His patrician demeanor made him stand out at the casual gathering.
Pro Tip 1/2Nobility Usage
Use 'patrician' to refer to people with noble heritage, especially in historical or literary contexts.
Her patrician lineage could be traced back to medieval royalty.
Pro Tip 2/2Modern Connotation
'Patrician' implies class and elegance in today's usage, but can sound pretentious if overused.
His patrician demeanor made him stand out at the casual gathering.
Pro Tip 1/2Nobility Usage
Use 'patrician' to refer to people with noble heritage, especially in historical or literary contexts.
Her patrician lineage could be traced back to medieval royalty.
Pro Tip 2/2Modern Connotation
'Patrician' implies class and elegance in today's usage, but can sound pretentious if overused.
His patrician demeanor made him stand out at the casual gathering.
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Video examples
Inside a Baby Sloth...
specialize in resting spots there's different reasons we receive a we rescue slots one case is patrician project when they're eliminating the forests and they are left behind then that also happened when they are also eliminating an area and they just move to the back yard of a
Video examples
Who were the Vestal...
Her age, her patrician family lineage, and her apparent good health makes her the best candidate to serve the goddess Vesta in the eyes of the Romans. Her parents are proud that their daughter's been chosen. Licinia is afraid, but she has no choice in the matter.
Video examples
Inside a Baby Sloth...
specialize in resting spots there's different reasons we receive a we rescue slots one case is patrician project when they're eliminating the forests and they are left behind then that also happened when they are also eliminating an area and they just move to the back yard of a
Video examples
Who were the Vestal...
Her age, her patrician family lineage, and her apparent good health makes her the best candidate to serve the goddess Vesta in the eyes of the Romans. Her parents are proud that their daughter's been chosen. Licinia is afraid, but she has no choice in the matter.
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Heather Brooke
American Journalist
Diplomacy has always involved dinners with ruling elites, backroom deals and clandestine meetings. Now, in the digital age, the reports of all those parties and patrician chats can be collected in one enormous database. And once collected in digital form, it becomes very easy for them to be shared.
Quote examples
Adam Curtis
British Director
James Goldsmith is important because he used the power of the markets to break up the cosy patrician elite that ran Britain and its industries in the 1950s and '60s. In the process, Goldsmith helped transfer power in this country away from politics and towards the markets and the financial sector.
Quote examples
Jami Attenberg
American Author
I do not mourn the death of the printed letter in a snobby, East Coast, patrician way - 'Where have our manners gone?' - but because I love objects, I love paper, and I love something that I can hold to my chest for a moment. Still, I bear no grudge against the e-mail form itself.
Quote examples
Antonin Scalia
American Judge
To allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation.
Quote examples
Rob Sheffield
American Journalist
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is just perfect in 'Veep.' She gets to show off the spiky claws beneath her patrician finesse. The obvious way to play 'Veep' would be to make Louis-Dreyfus a folksy heroine, one with more common sense or populist heart than her enemies. But she isn't one.
Quote examples
A. A. Gill
British Writer
Suits are malevolent magicians' sleeves for socialists, full of patrician loops and tricks, small, embroidered, cryptic messages of deference and privilege. They are ever the uniform of the enemy. They are also the greatest British invention ever.
Quote examples
Linda Colley
British Historian
High-level political wives are by no means new. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when patricians dominated British political life, it was common for politicians' spouses to play an active political role.
Quote examples
Alan Furst
American Author
Le Carre's voice - patrician, cold, brilliant and amused - was perfect for the wilderness-of-mirrors undertow of the Cold War, and George Smiley is the all-time harassed bureaucrat of spy fiction.
Quote examples
Kristin Scott Thomas
English Actress
When I speak English, I've been told, I have this patrician way of speaking that's very irritating. It's the whole class thing.
Quote examples
Dalton Trumbo
American Novelist
One of the disadvantages of being a patrician is that occasionally you're obliged to act like one.
Quote examples
Heather Brooke
American Journalist
Diplomacy has always involved dinners with ruling elites, backroom deals and clandestine meetings. Now, in the digital age, the reports of all those parties and patrician chats can be collected in one enormous database. And once collected in digital form, it becomes very easy for them to be shared.
Quote examples
Adam Curtis
British Director
James Goldsmith is important because he used the power of the markets to break up the cosy patrician elite that ran Britain and its industries in the 1950s and '60s. In the process, Goldsmith helped transfer power in this country away from politics and towards the markets and the financial sector.
Quote examples
Jami Attenberg
American Author
I do not mourn the death of the printed letter in a snobby, East Coast, patrician way - 'Where have our manners gone?' - but because I love objects, I love paper, and I love something that I can hold to my chest for a moment. Still, I bear no grudge against the e-mail form itself.
Quote examples
Antonin Scalia
American Judge
To allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation.
Quote examples
Rob Sheffield
American Journalist
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is just perfect in 'Veep.' She gets to show off the spiky claws beneath her patrician finesse. The obvious way to play 'Veep' would be to make Louis-Dreyfus a folksy heroine, one with more common sense or populist heart than her enemies. But she isn't one.
Quote examples
A. A. Gill
British Writer
Suits are malevolent magicians' sleeves for socialists, full of patrician loops and tricks, small, embroidered, cryptic messages of deference and privilege. They are ever the uniform of the enemy. They are also the greatest British invention ever.
Quote examples
Linda Colley
British Historian
High-level political wives are by no means new. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when patricians dominated British political life, it was common for politicians' spouses to play an active political role.
Quote examples
Alan Furst
American Author
Le Carre's voice - patrician, cold, brilliant and amused - was perfect for the wilderness-of-mirrors undertow of the Cold War, and George Smiley is the all-time harassed bureaucrat of spy fiction.
Quote examples
Kristin Scott Thomas
English Actress
When I speak English, I've been told, I have this patrician way of speaking that's very irritating. It's the whole class thing.
Quote examples
Dalton Trumbo
American Novelist
One of the disadvantages of being a patrician is that occasionally you're obliged to act like one.
Example 1 of 10
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