Aristocracy
[,ærɪ'stɒkrəsɪ] or [,ærɪ'stɑkrəsi]
Definition
(n.) Government by the best citizens.
(n.) A ruling body composed of the best citizens.
(n.) A form a government, in which the supreme power is vested in the principal persons of a state, or in a privileged order; an oligarchy.
(n.) The nobles or chief persons in a state; a privileged class or patrician order; (in a popular use) those who are regarded as superior to the rest of the community, as in rank, fortune, or intellect.
Inputed by Elizabeth
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Government of nobles or a privileged order.[2]. Nobility, noblesse, gentry, peerage, body of nobles, the quality, persons of rank.[3]. [Colloquial.] Upper classes, UPPER-TEN, UPPER-CRUST, upper ten thousand.
Typed by Andy
Definition
n. government by the men of best birth or condition: political power of a privileged order: the nobility or chief persons of a state: the upper classes generally also the persons noted for superiority in any quality taken collectively—also Aristarch′y (rare).—n. Aristocrat (ar′is-to-krat or ar-is′-) one who belongs to or favours an aristocracy: a haughty person.—adjs. Aristocrat′ic -al belonging to aristocracy: gentlemanly stylish.—adv. Aristocrat′ically.—n. Aristocrat′ism.
Edited by Anselm
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. Government by the best men. (In this sense the word is obsolete; so is that kind of government.) Fellows that wear downy hats and clean shirts—guilty of education and suspected of bank accounts.
Inputed by Barbara
Examples
- He once said that he was educated in a university where all the students belonged to families of the aristocracy; and the highest class in the university all wore little red caps. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Don't tell me, Mrs. Archer would say to her children, all this modern newspaper rubbish about a New York aristocracy. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Hulker and Bullock were a high family of the City aristocracy, and connected with the nobs at the West End. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Times are altered at Ostend now; of the Britons who go thither, very few look like lords, or act like those members of our hereditary aristocracy. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Look at the aristocracy of Villette--you would not like them, sir? Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Him who answers to aristocracy, and whom we rightly call just and good, we have already described. Plato. The Republic.
- No oppressive aristocracy has ever prevailed in the colonies. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Billiards was the game of the aristocracy and the Puritan hated not only the aristocrat, but the style and color of his clothes, the cut of his hair, as well as the games he played. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- His protectorate was to be distinguished by every kind of innovation on the aristocracy. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Greek education was almost purely _viva-voce_ education; it could reach therefore only to a limited aristocracy. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The aristocracy held out the longest. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- First, then, I said, let us enquire how timocracy (the government of honour) arises out of aristocracy (the government of the best). Plato. The Republic.
- He favors a true aristocracy as the best means of produ cing a race of supermen. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- She is such a very nice girl--no airs, no pretensions, though on a level with the firSt. I don't mean with the titled aristocracy. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- The first group was the logical extension of the old-world aristocracy. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Naturally enough under the circumstances the nomadic peoples were always supplying the civilizations with fresh rulers and new aristocracies. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Your deity is the deity of foreign aristocracies; analyze the blue blood of Spain! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- And in the ancient Greek aristocracies, merit was certainly recognized as one of the elements on which government was based. Plato. The Republic.
- Well, he said, have you never heard that forms of government differ; there are tyrannies, and there are democracies, and there are aristocracies? Plato. The Republic.
Editor: Stacy