Pub·lic a.
 1. Of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; -- opposed to private; as, the public treasury.
 To the public good
 Private respects must yield.   --Milton.
    He [Alexander Hamilton] touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprung upon its feet.   --D. Webster.
 2. Open to the knowledge or view of all; general; common; notorious; as, public report; public scandal.
    Joseph, . . . not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.   --Matt. i. 19.
 3. Open to common or general use; as, a public road; a public house. “The public street.”
 public act or  public statute Law, an act or statute affecting matters of public concern. Of such statutes the courts take judicial notice.
 Public credit. See under Credit.
 Public funds. See Fund, 3.
 Public house, an inn, or house of entertainment.
 Public law. (a) See International law, under International. (b) A public act or statute.
 Public nuisance. Law See under Nuisance.
 Public orator. Eng. Universities See Orator, 3.
 Public stores, military and naval stores, equipments, etc.
 Public works, all fixed works built by civil engineers for public use, as railways, docks, canals, etc.; but strictly, military and civil engineering works constructed at the public cost.


 Fund n.
 1. An aggregation or deposit of resources from which supplies are or may be drawn for carrying on any work, or for maintaining existence.
 2. A stock or capital; a sum of money appropriated as the foundation of some commercial or other operation undertaken with a view to profit; that reserve by means of which expenses and credit are supported; as, the fund of a bank, commercial house, manufacturing corporation, etc.
 3. pl. The stock of a national debt; public securities; evidences (stocks or bonds) of money lent to government, for which interest is paid at prescribed intervals; -- called also public funds.
 4. An invested sum, whose income is devoted to a specific object; as, the fund of an ecclesiastical society; a fund for the maintenance of lectures or poor students; also, money systematically collected to meet the expenses of some permanent object.
 5. A store laid up, from which one may draw at pleasure; a supply; a full provision of resources; as, a fund of wisdom or good sense.
    An inexhaustible fund of stories.   --Macaulay.
 Sinking fund, the aggregate of sums of money set apart and invested, usually at fixed intervals, for the extinguishment of the debt of a government, or of a corporation, by the accumulation of interest.