gentleman-commoner

[ jen-tl-muhn-kom-uh-ner ]

noun,plural gen·tle·men-com·mon·ers.
  1. (formerly) a member of a class of commoners enjoying special privileges at Oxford University.

Origin of gentleman-commoner

1
First recorded in 1680–90

Words Nearby gentleman-commoner

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use gentleman-commoner in a sentence

  • Gibbon was a gentleman commoner, and was permitted by the easy discipline of Magdalen to behave just as he pleased.

    Oxford | Andrew Lang
  • A gentleman commoner of Queen's was president of a 'hellfire club,' and brutal horseplay was still practised upon the weaker lads.

  • The next ten years passed in a round of gaiety which took the form of courtship by no one under the rank of gentleman commoner.

    Rowlandson's Oxford | A. Hamilton Gibbs
  • Braburn, a gentleman commoner of Lincoln college, gave a silver arrow to be shot for by the archers of the university of Oxford.

  • He was a commoner of Trinity Colledge in Oxford.