1. The body of persons who compose a community, tribe, nation, or race; an aggregate of individuals
forming a whole; a community; a nation.
Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Gen. xlix. 10.
The ants are a people not strong.
Prov. xxx. 25.
Before many peoples, and nations, and tongues.
Rev. x. 11.
Earth's monarchs are her peoples.
Whitter.
A government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.
T. Parker. Peopleis a collective noun, generally construed with a plural verb, and only occasionally used in the
plural form in the sense of nations or races.
2. Persons, generally; an indefinite number of men and women; folks; population, or part of population; as,
country people; — sometimes used as an indefinite subject or verb, like on in French, and man in
German; as, people in adversity.
People were tempted to lend by great premiums.
Swift.
People have lived twenty-four days upon nothing but water.
Arbuthnot. 3. The mass of comunity as distinguished from a special class; the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the
common crowd; as, nobles and people.
And strive to gain his pardon from the people.
Addison. 4. With a possessive pronoun: (a) One's ancestors or family; kindred; relations; as, my people were English.
(b) One's subjects; fellow citizens; companions; followers. "You slew great number of his people." Shak.
Syn. — People, Nation. When speaking of a state, we use people for the mass of the community, as
distinguished from their rulers, and nation for the entire political body, including the rulers. In another
sense of the term, nation describes those who are descended from the same stock; and in this sense
the Germans regard themselves as one nation, though politically subject to different forms of government.
People
(Peo"ple) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Peopled p. pr. & vb. n. Peopling ] [Cf. OF. popler, puepler, F.
puepler. Cf. Populate.] To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate. "Peopled
heaven with angels." Dryden.
As the gay motes that people the sunbeams.
Milton. Peopled
(Peo"pled) a. Stocked with, or as with, people; inhabited. "The peopled air." Gray.
Peopleless
(Peo"ple*less), a. Destitute of people. Poe.
Peopler
(Peo"pler) n. A settler; an inhabitant. "Peoplers of the peaceful glen." J. S. Blackie.
Peoplish
(Peo"plish) a. Vulgar. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Peorias
(Pe*o"ri*as) n. pl.; sing. Peoria (Ethnol.) An Algonquin tribe of Indians who formerly inhabited
a part of Illinois.
Pepastic
(Pe*pas"tic) a. & n. [Gr. to ripen, suppurate: cf. F. pépastique.] (Med.) Same as Maturative.
