▪ I. class, n.
(klɑːs, -æ-)
[In 17th c. classe, a. F. classe (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. classis: see classis, which was in earlier use. The evidence for the Eng. word begins with Blount; but there is an earlier (casual) Sc. use: sense 8.]
1. Rom. Hist. Each of the six divisions or orders of the Roman people in the constitution ascribed to Servius Tullius.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v. Classical, He divided the Romans into six great Armies or Bands which he called Classes; The valuation of those in the first Classe was not under two hundred pounds. a 1859 De Quincey Lett. Yng. Man Wks. XIV. 57 note, Such a man was rated as to his income in the third class, such another in the fourth, and so on; but he who was in the highest was said emphatically to be of the class, ‘classicus’. |
2. a. A division or order of society according to status; a rank or grade of society.
Now common in the phrases
higher (upper) class,
middle class,
lower classes,
working classes; which appear to be of modern introduction.
Higher and
lower orders were formerly used. This appears to be only partly derived from sense 1, and largely from the general sense 6.
| [1656 Blount Glossogr., Classe..an order or distribution of people according to their several Degrees.] 1772 Hanway (title), Observations on the Causes of the Dissoluteness which reigns among the lower classes of the people. 1806 Med. Jrnl. XV. 428 Its efficacy here, among the lower class, to whom above 4,000 copies have been distributed, is beyond our expectations. 1816 Owen (title), Two Memorials on behalf of the Working Classes. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambros. Wks. 1855 I. 11, I would..introduce the upper classes into the wark. 1830 Decl. Birmingh. Pol. Union in Life T. Attwood x. (1885) 133 That the rights and interests of the middle and lower classes of the people are not efficiently represented in the Commons House of Parliament. 1832 Blackw. Mag. Jan. 131/2 Calumniating the ‘middle classes’. 1832 A. Fonblanque Eng. under Sev. Administr. (1837) II. 268 The best of the higher orders..the worst of the lowest classes. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Cockayne Wks. (Bohn) II. 67 The habit of brag runs through all classes, from the Times newspaper..down to the boys of Eton. a 1862 Buckle Civiliz. (1869) II. iii. 150 Our great Rebellion was in its external form a war of classes. 1876 Green Short Hist. iv. §4 (1882) 193 The tyranny of class over class. |
b. The system of such divisions of society; rank (
esp. high rank), caste.
c. the classes: the classes of the community raised above or separated from ‘the masses’ or great body of the people.
| 1845 Disraeli Sybil (1863) 199 Walled out from sympathy by prejudices and convictions more impassable than all the mere consequences of class. 1886 Gladstone in Pall Mall G. 3 May 11/2 Station, title, wealth, social influence..in a word, the spirit and power of class..The adverse host, then, consists of class, and the dependents of class..On these and many other great issues the classes have fought uniformly on the wrong side, and have uniformly been beaten. 1887 Fowler Princ. Morals ii. ii. 99 An intense feeling of class or caste. |
3. a. A division of the scholars or students of an institution, receiving the same instruction or ranked together as of the same standing. Also, the assembling or attendance of such a body; the instruction, lessons, or course of lectures given thereat.
In English Grammar Schools the traditional and conventional division is into Six
Forms numbered from the lowest upward. In large schools these are for practical purposes often subdivided into lower, middle, and upper or other divisions, which are really distinct classes. The number of
Classes, on the contrary, when this term is used, is unlimited, and they are usually reckoned from the highest downward.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Classe..In Schools (wherein this word is most used) a Form or Lecture restrained to a certain company of Scholars. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon I. 80 He went through the usual classes of Logick and Philosophy with unwearied industry. 1740 J. Clarke Educ. Youth (ed. 3) 209 The Boys of the upper Classes may be admitted. 1827 Lytton Pelham I. ii. 11, I was in the head class when I left Eton. 1875–6 Edinb. Univ. Cal. 68 Examinations on the work done in the Class. 1883 Lloyd Ebb & Flow II. 167 There's an evening class of little street Arabs. Mod. Is the School divided into Classes or Forms? |
b. spec. In
U.S. colleges, a division containing all students of the same standing, who enter the same year, pursue together the various steps of the academic course, and finally graduate together at the close of their fourth year: each class is named from the year of its graduation,
e.g. ‘the class of 1825’, that of Longfellow and Hawthorne, at Bowdoin College. Hence
class-system, now often opposed to the ‘university system’, in which this uniform fixed curriculum does not obtain. Also
class day, etc.: see 10.
| 1671 S. Sewall Letter-Bk. (1886) I. 19 Remember me kindly to all our Class. 1684 in Harvard College Rec. (1925) I. 77 Mr. Samuel Mitchell was..desired to undertake ye charge of ye class of ye Sophimores untill further order. 1766 T. Clap Ann. Yale-Coll. 14 The Senior Class were removed to Milford... The rest of the Students were removed to Saybrook. 1828 in Webster. 1862 [See class-day in 10]. 1870 Porter Amer. Colleges 191 We do not see how an American college without fixed Classes can have an efficient common life..Should the class be destroyed or set aside by the substitution of the régime of the university for the régime of the college, the energy and interest of the common life..must inevitably go with it. Ibid. The class system is essential to an efficient and energetic common college life. 1875 Longfellow Morituri Salutamus (On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Bowdoin College class of 1825). 1882 Memoir of Longfellow in Poems (Chandos) 10 It was a remarkable class in which he found himself, for it contained..Nathaniel Hawthorne, George B. Cheever, and J. S. C. Abbott. 1887 Cabot Mem. Emerson 62 The class of 1821 [Emerson's] held for fifty years its annual reunion at Cambridge. |
4. A division of candidates or competitors according to merit, as a result of examination. Also
attrib.; and
elliptically, a class certificate or degree, as in
to take a class at Oxford = to take an honours degree in one of the Schools.
| 1807 E. Tatham Addr. to Convoc. (Oxf.) 15 In regard to the Schedule of the Three Classes, and particularly in regard to the First Class, there may be different opinions. 1861 M. Burrows Pass & Class (1866) 21 The Pass papers occupy one day, the Class papers from four to five. Ibid. 29 What particular class a man has obtained. 1863 Lond. Univ. Cal., First B.A., In the course of the following week, the Examiners shall publish a list of the Candidates..arranged in Three Classes, according to their respective degrees of proficiency. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. 230 This is the distinction between what is compulsory on all, and what is left to voluntary ambition—the distinction between ‘Pass’ and ‘Class’. Ibid. 298 Dr. Pusey, living on the spot, can discriminate between the ‘Pass’ and the ‘Class’ curriculum. Mod. I shall read for a class in History. He will be lucky if he gets his class at all. All members of the corps must go down to the butts this week to shoot their class. |
5. a. A division of things according to grade or quality, as
high or
low,
first,
second, etc.
Esp. used for the different grades of accommodation in travelling by railway or steamboat. The phrases
high-class,
low-class,
first-class,
second-class, and the like, are common in
attrib. use,
e.g. ‘high-class goods’,‘second-class passenger’. See
high, etc.
| 1694 R. Burthogge Reason 234 A Conjurer of the Highest Class. 1852 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 173, I came by the second-class, and so saved the nine shillings. 1879 Sala in Daily Tel. 26 Dec., Inability..to make up her mind as to what class she means to travel by. |
b. slang or
colloq. Distinction, high quality;
no class: of no worth; of low quality, inferior. Also
attrib. or quasi-adj.| 1874 Hotten Slang Dict., Class, the highest quality or combination of highest qualities among athletes. ‘He's not class enough’, i.e., not good enough. ‘There's a deal of class about him’, i.e., a deal of quality. 1884 Referee 24 Mar. 1/3 The elasticity necessary for anything like class at sprinting departs comparatively early. 1897 Daily Tel. June (Ware), Soldiers! Why, soldiers ain't no class. 1924 H. de Sélincourt Cricket Match ii. 26 If he'd had coaching, he'd be a class bowler. 1927 [see arrow v. 4]. 1927 R. Rees Life's what you make It xii. 161, I'm not ‘much class’. Ibid. 162, I am ‘no class’. 1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident ii. 18 Real class your sister is. Too good for a schoolteacher. 1954 ‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom i. iii. 40 It was a class neighbourhood, thought Foxy, surveying the elegant, freshly-painted houses. 1969 A. Hunter Gently Coloured iv. 52 I'm no class, I know that. I'm where I belong, a working policeman. |
6. a. gen. A number of individuals (persons or things) possessing common attributes, and grouped together under a general or ‘class’ name; a kind, sort, division. (Now the leading sense.)
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 201 Anemonies and Flowers of that Class should be discreetly pruned. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 77 ¶2 This Class of modern Wits I shall reserve for a chapter by itself. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 89 Whate'er of mongrel no one class admits, A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits. 1789 Belsham Ess. II. xli. 532 Civil incapacities affecting whole classes of citizens. 1810 Coleridge Friend (1865) 30 The class of readers, to which he means to address his communications. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 372 Comparing the wages paid to operatives of the different classes, sexes, and ages. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 132 A third nerve of the sympathetic class. |
b. in
Logical classification.
| 1846 Mill Logic (1856) I. vii. §1 By every general name which we introduce, we create a class, if there be any things, real or imaginary, to compose it. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. iii. ii. §17 (1864) 480 A class differs from a catalogue by virtue of a common resemblance in the midst of diversity. 1869 Fowler Deduct. Logic 64 We conceive that there is no limit to our power of making classes. |
c. Natural History. One of the highest groups into which the Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral Kingdom is divided, a class being subdivided into
orders, and these again to
genera, and
species.
Intermediate groups are now often established between these; thus above classes are
sub-kingdoms.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Botany, The knowledge of the classes, genera, species..of plants. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. ix, Explanation of the Classes in the Linnæan System. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §8 The principal groups, or classes, are subdivided into others, termed orders. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. §4. 125 The characters of a Class are common not only to its Subclasses and Divisions, but to the..Orders, Genera, and Species included in that Class. |
d. Geom. (See
quot.)
| 1869 Salmon Conic Sections (ed. 5) §145 note, A curve is said to be of the n{supt}{suph} class, when through any point n tangents can be drawn to the curve. A conic is therefore a curve of the second degree and of the second class: but in higher curves the degree and class of a curve are commonly not the same. |
7. Eccl. a. = classis 3.
| 1785 Warton Notes on Milton's Poems (T.), The city of London being distributed into twelve classes, each class chose two ministers and four lay-elders, to represent them in a provincial assembly. |
b. In the Methodist societies: A subdivision of a congregation or society, meeting under a ‘class-leader’ for religious purposes.
| 1742 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 357 That the whole society should be divided into little companies or classes—about twelve in each class. 1791 Hampson Mem. Wesley III. 82 Each society is divided into companies of ten or fifteen, called classes; each of which regularly meets the leader once a week. 1885 Minutes Wesleyan Conf. 361 The Quarterly visitation of the Classes is our most important official work. |
† 8. [L.
classis,
It. classe.] A fleet or navy.
rare.
| 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. iv. (1887) 202 He furnissed a meruellous classe, quhilke to the sey he sett ladne with a multitude innumerable of men of armes. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Classe (classis), a ship, or Navy. |
9. attrib. or quasi-adj. (in sense 2), ‘pertaining to a class, or classes, of society’, often ‘pertaining to the upper classes’, as in
class-education,
class-grievance,
class-interest,
class-journal,
class-legislation,
class-privilege. Now
freq. pertaining to the differences or antagonisms within a class, or between the classes, of society, as in
class antagonism,
class bar,
class barrier,
class bias,
class boundary,
class-cleavage,
class conflict,
class dialect,
class dictatorship,
class difference,
class distinction,
class division,
class enemy,
class-feeling,
class-hatred,
class-jealousy,
class-loyalty,
class morality,
class-prejudice,
class rule,
class solidarity,
class spirit,
class structure,
class struggle,
class-superiority,
class system,
class war,
class warfare;
class-biased,
class-bound,
class-ridden [
ridden ppl. a. 4],
class-structured adjs.;
class-conscious a. [
cf. G.
klassenbewusst], conscious of belonging to a particular social class and of being identified with its interests, often with implication of sharp differentiation from or hostility to other classes; so
class-consciousness;
class-marriage, marriage within a class;
class society, a society based on division into social classes.
| 1850 H. Macfarlane tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red Republican 23 Nov. 183/2 The old Bourgeois Society, with its classes, and *class antagonisms. a 1950 ‘G. Orwell’ England your England (1953) 21 Class antagonisms are not all-important. |
| 1939 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Apr. 335 Except for the *class bar, the amateur definition of the two [rowing] associations is..the same. |
| 1889 G. B. Shaw Fabian Essays in Socialism 21 You set your life apart from theirs by every *class barrier you can devise. 1945 Koestler Yogi & Commissar iii. iii. 224 A crumbling of class-barriers. |
| 1863 Bee-Hive 19 Dec. 5/3 Evening schools, for the purpose of educating, free from all *class or sectarian bias, the children of the industrious classes. 1931 G. J. Renier The English vi. 109 Impartiality..requires absence of class-bias. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 9 Sept. 2/3 A citizen Army, free from military law in times of peace, is the best alternative to the *class-biased policy of the present Government. 1950 D. Riesman in Psychiatry XIII. 302/2 Certain elements in Freud's view of life were narrow, class-biased, and reactionary. |
| 1936 K. Mannheim Ideology & Utopia iii. 139 It [sc. humanism] broke through the fixedness of a *class-bound mentality in many respects. 1960 New Left Rev. Nov.–Dec. 28/1 The new ‘working-class consciousness’..is likely to be..less class-bound. |
| 1959 F. Donaldson Child of Twenties vi. 91 The *class-boundaries were still..well defined. 1959 V. Packard Status Seekers (1960) i. 5 Class boundaries are contrary to the American dream. |
| 1937 J. M. Murry Necessity of Pacifism vi. 98 Advanced Capitalism operates far more strongly towards national cohesion than towards *class-cleavage. |
| 1898 G. B. Shaw in Sat. Rev. 29 Jan. 139/1 The alternative of achieving a real superiority or going ignominiously under in the *class conflict. 1919 J. L. Garvin Econ. Foundations of Peace 106 Our whole future depends upon securing..better relations between Capital and Labour instead of Class-conflict. |
| 1903 J. London People of Abyss viii. 84, I was a superior, and they were superbly *class-conscious. 1906 Daily Chron. 18 Apr. 4/5 A class-conscious political party. 1907 Fabian News XIX. 94/1 The middle classes are more class-conscious than the workers. 1935 Economist 29 June 1476/2 Despite the real class distinctions that divide us, the mass of the people forgot to be class-conscious during Jubilee week. |
| 1887 Moore & Aveling tr. Marx's Capital I. p. xxiv, The German proletariat had attained a much more clear *class-consciousness than the German bourgeoisie. 1922 Westm. Gaz. 18 Dec., The belief that what was called class consciousness was necessary to social progress. 1959 F. Donaldson Child of Twenties iii. 40 She did us a service by her class-consciousness..her belief that we belonged among the higher types of humanity. |
| 1901 Greenough & Kittredge Words & Ways v. 53 Any limited circle having common interests is sure to develop a kind of ‘*class dialect’. 1930 J. R. Firth Speech viii. 62 Standard English, on the other hand, is a class dialect; to adapt Lord Chesterfield, it is the ‘usage of the best companies’. |
| 1930 L. L. Lorwin in Seligman & Johnson Encycl. Soc. Sci. III. 541/2 The establishment of *class dictatorships throughout the world. 1941 ‘G. Orwell’ Lion & Unicorn iii. 112 An English Socialist government..will not set up any explicit class dictatorship. |
| 1879 S. A. Barnett Let. 21 Dec. in H. Barnett Canon Barnett (1918) I. xix. 233 Our serving-man..has no sense of *class difference. 1960 20th Cent. Apr. 373 People do not necessarily weaken class differences..because they can climb from one social class to another. |
| 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge xxvi. 83 If she were in a more elevated station of society, she would be gouty, Being but a hewer of wood and drawer of water, she is a rheumatic... These are natural *class distinctions. 1850 H. Macfarlane tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red Republican 23 Nov. 183/1 When Class distinctions will have finally disappeared..the public power will lose its political character. 1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day iv. 80 His Christianity found nothing paradoxical in the rigid class-distinctions of the time. |
| 1922 Ld. Haldane in Public Opinion 10 Feb. 128/2 A deep lying *class division, which tends to produce bitterness. 1961 New Left Rev. Jan.–Feb. 36/1 Traditional class divisions are gradually breaking down. |
| 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. 326 *Class-education would seem to be as rooted an idea in the English mind, as denominational religion. |
| 1957 R. N. C. Hunt Guide to Communist Jargon iv. 8 To assert that democracy—i.e. the ‘rule of the people’—can be achieved under the domination of its ‘*class enemy’..would be absurd. |
| 1839 Mill in Bain J. S. Mill (1882) ii. 53 The convictions of the mass of mankind run hand in hand with their interests or with their *class feelings. 1961 A. O. J. Cockshut Imagination of Dickens viii. 119 The contempt for Uriah is partly a class-feeling. |
| 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. vii. 58 The turkey..always troubled with a *class-grievance (probably Christmas). |
| 1851 T. G. Massey in Friend of People 26 Apr. 177/3, I shall be accused of sowing *class-hatred. 1908 Daily Chron. 29 June 4/4 From top to bottom of the social or economic scale of class-consciousness or class-hatreds. 1937 J. M. Murry Necessity of Pacifism i. 10 Marx is vulgarly but generally reputed to be a propagator of the duty of class-hatred. |
| 1828 J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. IX. 255 Party interests, and *class interests..appear to influence the train of events. 1879 Escott England i. 92 The inexpediency of allowing magistrates to adjudicate in special cases in which they have a class interest. |
| 1920 D. H. Lawrence Lost Girl i. 8 Let *class-jealousy be what it may, a woman hates to see another woman left stalely on the shelf. |
| 1888 Pall Mall G. 4 May 11/2 The *class journals..classify and concentrate all the news that affects a particular trade for the benefit of those engaged therein. |
| 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Race, Bitter *class-legislation. |
| 1899 W. James Talks to Teachers 289 *Class-loyalty was undoubtedly an ideal with many. 1938 ‘G. Orwell’ Homage to Catalonia iii. 34 In a workers' army discipline..is based on class-loyalty. |
| 1899 Keane Man Past & Present 153 Here it is necessary to distinguish carefully between *class-marriages and the so-called ‘communal’ or ‘group’ marriages; the former having for their sole object, not, as is commonly supposed, the prevention of close consanguineous unions but the proper disposal of the stock of available food. |
| 1833 J. S. Mill in Monthly Repos. VII. 577 That blighting curse of our country,—the selfishness of *class morality. 1951 R. Firth Elem. Soc. Organization vi. 211 Class morality is apt not to be a direct reflection of current structural alignments. |
| 1850 C. Kingsley Alton Locke I. xi. 172 All my *class prejudices against ‘game-preserving aristocrats’. 1925 Jespersen Mankind, Nation & Individual iv. 81 The difference in language begets a mutual disdain and class-prejudice. |
| 1864 tr. Marx in Founding of First International (1939) 39 The struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for *class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class rule. 1956 J. Wilson Language & Pursuit of Truth ii. 57 Men make..protests against particular types of privilege..for instance, against class-privilege. |
| 1856 R. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 256 It knows nothing of *class-religion. |
| 1934 Dylan Thomas Let. 20 July (1966) 138 All society ceases to be *class-ridden when treated purely as a primary body of consumers. 1941 ‘G. Orwell’ Lion & Unicorn i. i. 33 England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. |
| 1864 *Class rule [see class privilege]. 1959 Universities & Left Rev. Spring 1/1 A socialist commitment, a conscious rejection of all that springs from class rule. |
| 1930 L. L. Lorwin in Seligman & Johnson Encycl. Soc. Sci. III. 540/2 In any *class society the process of production is simultaneously a process of economic exploitation. 1949 W. S. Adams Edwardian Heritage xxii. 183 How easy for..a class society to hold that rule over subject races was in the order of things. |
| 1907 Q. Jrnl. Econ. XXI. 307 *Class solidarity will arise on the basis of this class interest. |
| 1840 J. S. Mill in Edin. Rev. Oct. 39 That absence of classes and *class-spirit. 1886 B. Webb Let. in My Apprenticeship (1926) iii. 166 Class spirit hardly exists because there is no capitalist class. |
| 1930 P. Mombert in Seligman & Johnson Encycl. Soc. Sci. III. 535/2 The present day *class structure of society has been attacked from two directions. 1958 P. Shore in N. Mackenzie Conviction 51 In spite of war-socialism and the Attlee Government..the class structure seems as strong as it ever was. |
| 1959 G. D. Mitchell Sociology vii. 110 Marx perceived Europe as divided into *class-structured societies. |
| 1850 H. Macfarlane tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red Republican 16 Nov. 171/2 As the settlement of the *class struggle draws near, the process of dissolution goes on..within the ruling-class. 1939 ‘G. Orwell’ Crit. Essays (1951) 11 From the ‘revolutionary’ point of view the class-struggle is the main source of progress. 1959 E. Burgess Divided we Fall xi. 128 All this union business ties up with..politics, the class struggle. |
| 1859 J. S. Mill Liberty i. 16 Wherever there is an ascendant class, a large portion of the morality of the country emanates from its class interests, and its feelings of *class superiority. 1948 F. R. Leavis Great Tradition v. 246 His languid assurance of class-superiority. |
| 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xix. 326 If their *class-sympathies were with the clergy. |
| 1877 L. H. Morgan Anc. Society iii. iii. 425 The significance of the Australian *class system presents itself anew in this connection. 1958 P. Johnson in N. Mackenzie Conviction 213 The essence of a class system is that property, birth and upbringing, rather than virtue or ability, determine status, power and income. |
| 1886 tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party iii. 28 In proportion as the *class-war [1850 tr. class-battle] is evolved and assumes a definite form, so does this imaginary elevation over it..lose all practical worth. 1892 G. B. Shaw Fabian Soc. (Fabian Tract 41) 5 The Social-Democratic Federation..said..that its policy is founded on a recognition of the existence of a Class War. 1919 J. Buchan Mr. Standfast i. iii. 60 Their blessed class war, which cuts across nationalities. 1961 L. Mumford City in History ix. 257 Hostile expropriation on one side, with seething revolt and counter-challenge on the other: in short, the class war, in which no quarter was expected or given. |
| 1892 G. B. Shaw Fabian Soc. (Fabian Tract 41) 25 (heading) Scientific *class warfare. 1927 A. Huxley Proper Stud. 86 Those who would interpret all social phenomena in terms of class warfare. |
10. Comb., as
class-attender,
class-holder,
class-notion,
class-room (also
attrib.),
class-teaching,
class-variety; in sense 7 b,
class-leader,
class-meeting,
class-system;
class-wise adv.;
class-book, a book used in class-teaching;
class-cleavage Linguistics, (of a word or form) occurrence in more than one form-class;
class-cup (
U.S.), a silver cup presented by a College Class to the first son born to one of the members after graduation;
class-day (
U.S.), the day on which, in American Colleges, the Senior Class celebrate, with literary and social festivities, the completion of their college course;
class-distinction, a difference between two classes of objects; (see also sense 9 above);
class-fellow, a scholar or student in the same class with others at school or college;
class-firing, trial shooting among riflemen, to obtain a position in one of the classes;
class-list, a list of the members of a class (sense 3); also
spec. a list containing the names of those who have passed an examination, arranged in classes according to merit;
class-man, (at Oxford University) one who is placed in a class-list or obtains ‘honours’ after examination; so
classmanship (
nonce-wd.);
class-mark,
class-number, a mark or number indicating the class or subject of a book in a library and often its position on the library shelves;
class-meaning Linguistics, the feature of meaning shared by all forms belonging to the same form-class;
class-name, the name of a logical class, a general name; in
Gram. the chief division of
common nouns, including such as are common to every individual of a class,
e.g. man,
dog,
book,
tree;
class-noun Linguistics = class-name;
† class-office, ? a lottery-office;
class-subject, a subject taught in a class; also, one set for examination in honours;
class-ticket, in
Sc. Universities, a ticket given to a student certifying attendance at any class.
| 1897 B'ham Inst. Mag. Nov. 214 Pity her sadness, ye happy lecture-goers and *class-attenders. |
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. iii. 119 Among the earliest tools..which a man..of letters, gets to handle, are his *Class-books. 1876 Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. ii. xiii. 347 At present Caesar is considered an elementary Class Book. |
| 1933 Bloomfield Lang. xii. 204 The word one occurs not only as an indefinite determiner (one man), but also in some entirely different functions (as in a big one, if one only knew); this phenomenon may be designated as *class-cleavage. Ibid. xvi. 265 Salt is a mass noun..but, by class-cleavage, there is also a plural salts (as in Epsom salts) with the meaning ‘consisting of particles’, in a class with oats. |
| 1862 Macm. Mag. Aug. 293 He had a good time of it that *class-day at Cambridge [U.S.] among his old comrades and class-mates. 1886 J. Quincy in Holmes Life Emerson 45 Emerson accepted the duty of delivering the Poem on Class Day. |
| 1843 Mill Logic I. i. vii. 168 Drawing a broad line of separation between these two kinds of classes and of *class-distinctions. 1885 G. B. Shaw How to become Mus. Critic (1960) 107 Not because he knows or cares enough about music to make the faintest class distinction between the overture to La Gazza Ladra and the prelude to Tristan und Isolde. |
| 1873 Edin. Univ. Cal. 336 Annual salaries (exclusive of *Class Fees) attached..to the Professorships, etc. |
| 1734 Berkeley Lett. 23 Feb. Wks. 1871 IV. 214 A *class-fellow of mine in the College. |
| 1888 Vct. Melgund in 19th Cent. XXXIII. 563 With Mounted Riflemen, *class-firing alone gives a good deal of work. |
| 1892 E. Rowe Chip-Carving 54 My experiences as a *class-holder in one of the evening classes of a London Board School. 1894 Daily News 28 June 6/3 Miss Nödel, the class holder, shows some excellent work in lacquered leather. |
| 1857 Kingsley Two Y. Ago iv. 85 A tidy, God-fearing person..One of these Methodist *class-leaders. |
| 1887 Sir R. H. Roberts In the Shires i. 14 It was seen at the head of the *class-list in the school quadrangle when the class-lists were posted. |
| a 1859 De Quincey Lett. Yng. Man Wks. XIV. 57 note, A man was rated as to his income..he who was in the highest was said emphatically to be of the class, ‘classicus’, a *class-man, without adding the number. 1861 M. Burrows Pass & Class (1866) 263 note, Xenophon's..works are not those usually taken up by the Class-man. |
| 1885 L. Stephen Life H. Fawcett iii. 76 A youth just fresh from his *classmanship often impresses his seniors as a little too condescending. |
| 1886 Willis & Clark Cambridge III. 429 When a book was given to a medieval library it was necessary..to write the name and *classmark across the fore-edge. |
| 1926 Bloomfield in Language II. 159 The functional meanings in which the forms of a form-class appear constitute the *class-meaning. 1958 C. F. Hockett Course Mod. Ling. xxx. 256 This class-meaning, ‘single female human or animal’, is not an invariable part of the meaning of she. |
| 1884 American VIII. 71 Chapel and *class-meeting pulled one way, and church the other. |
| 1843 Mill Logic I. i. v. 138 When the *class-name is predicated of any object of this description. 1870 Bowen Logic xi. 353 The..essential qualities of the objects denoted by the class-name. |
| Ibid. vii. 221 In a hierarchy of Concepts, the same *class-notion is at once a Genus to the class below, and a Species to the class above. |
| 1892 H. Sweet New Eng. Gram. I. 54 Common nouns..are subdivided into *class-nouns, such as man, and material-nouns, such as iron. 1939 H. E. Palmer Gram. Spoken Eng. (ed. 2) i. 30 Every word in the dictionary is potentially a class-noun, for we can speak of ifs and buts. |
| 1714 Lond. Gaz. No. 5228/4 Whoever brings them to Mr. Ravand at the *Class-Office Anno 1712, at the Exchequer, shall have 40s. reward. |
| 1870 N. Porter Amer. Colleges 192 Under the searching tests of the *Class-rooms the capacity of each man is satisfactorily ascertained. 1899 W. James Talks to Teachers xi. 100 The less the kind of attention requiring effort is appealed to, the more smoothly and pleasantly the class-room work goes on. 1936 Discovery May 147/2 The classroom film is the little brother of the formal documentary. |
| 1882 Buxton in 19th Cent. Nov. 792 The *class subjects include English grammar, history, etc. |
| 1873 Earle Philol. Eng. Tong. (ed. 2) §211 The grammarian..forms rules in which he legislates *class-wise for the words so grouped. |
▸
class action n. Law (
orig. and chiefly
N. Amer.) a single legal action brought on behalf of all the members of a group with a common interest or grievance;
freq. attrib.| 1909 Northeastern Reporter (1910) 90 175 The plaintiff cannot maintain this action as a *class action on behalf of himself and all other similarly situated creditors of the defendant. 1973 Black Panther 3 Mar. 6/1 The class-action law-suit filed in U.S. District Court asks that the Department of Health..be required to issue regulations forbidding States from defining eligibility rules more narrowly than federal law permits. 2001 D. Kessler Question of Intent xxx. 228 Countless liability suits continued to be filed, including..a class-action lawsuit on behalf of..ailing smokers in Florida. No class-action case had ever come to trial before. |
▸
class suit n. Law (
orig. and chiefly
N. Amer.)
= class action n. at Additions.
| 1894 Ohio Nisi Prius Rep. 3 20 The question to be determined is, whether the Compton suit was a representative or *class suit. 1951 A. Reppy Civil Rights in U.S. vi. 145 A Browne [Junior High School] student, and the Browne, Parent-Teacher's Association brought separate class suits against the Board of Education, seeking to invalidate the city's segregated school system. 1983 B. A. K. Rider Insider Trading vi. 313 The expedient of a class suit allows actions to become viable which individually may not be worth pursuing. This could be particularly so in regard to insider trading and associated abuses such as the manipulation of corporate disclosure. 2008 Manila Standard (Nexis) 15 May It is highly probable that some lawyers and even ordinary consumers can get together and file a class suit. |
▸
classwork n. Educ. work done in the classroom, rather than at home or elsewhere;
cf. homework n. 2.
| 1867 Times 10 June 6/4 The professor and his assistants have not merely..to give lectures, but to superintend *classwork in study. 1939 T. L. Green Pract. Animal Biol. i. 2 For class work you will usually be provided with a few drops of the culture medium containing specimens. 2004 Sun Herald (Biloxi, Mississippi) (Nexis) 18 Mar. a4 Most of what we learn is not coming from the homework assigned, but rather the classwork in school. |
▪ II. class, v. (
klɑːs,
-æ-)
[f. prec. n. Cf. F. classe.] † 1. trans. To divide or distribute into classes, to
classify.
Obs.| 1705 Arbuthnot Coins (J.), I considered that by the classing and methodizing such passages, I might instruct the reader. 1755 Johnson Dict. Pref., A people polished by arts, and classed by subordination. 1794 J. R. Sullivan View of Nat. i. 72 This fact causes an insurmountable difficulty in classing mountains. |
2. To place in a class, assign to its proper class or group.
| 1776 Adam Smith W.N. iv. ix. (1869) II. 260, I have classed artificers, manufacturers, and merchants among the productive labourers. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 164 Widely as the two differed in opinion, they were popularly classed together as canting schismatics. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 218 You class injustice with wisdom and virtue. 1879 R. T. Smith St. Basil the Great x. 115 We find far more difficulty in classing him. |
b. To place (students or scholars) in a class or classes, for instruction in common; to place in a particular class as the result of examination, to place in a class-list.
| 18.. Thackeray Charac. Sk. Misc. V. 331 (Hoppe) At a second year's examination..Tom was not classed at all. |
3. intr. (for
refl.) To take one's position in, or fall into, a (particular) class or division; to rank; to be classed.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) IV. 246 If I cannot do credit..to the female sex, by bringing down such an angel as this to class with and adorn it. 1816 Keatinge Trav. II. 92 This fine country..whose people class morally so high in the scale of mankind. 1865 Bushnell Vicar. Sacrif. ii. (1866) 26 Those who class as believers. |