Public
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
The whole body politic, or all the citizens of the state. It is inapplicable to a municipal corporation or other political subdivision; the people are the public.
21 Mich. 335.
It does not necessarily mean all of the inhabitants of a state, a county or a community.
184 111. App. 156; 169 111. 84.
This term is sometimes joined to other terms, to designate those things which have a relation to the public; as, a public ofiicer, a public road, a public passage, a public house. sometimes used as synonymous. The former term is applied strictly to that which concerns all the citizens and every member of the state; while the latter includes a lesser, though still a large, portion of the community.
Greenl. Ev. § 128.