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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Commons \Com"mons\, noun pl.,
1. The mass of the people, as distinguished from the titled classes or nobility; the commonalty; the common people. [Eng.]
'T is like the commons, rude unpolished hinds, Could send such message to their sovereign. --Shak.
The word commons in its present ordinary signification comprises all the people who are under the rank of peers. --Blackstone.
2. The House of Commons, or lower house of the British Parliament, consisting of representatives elected by the qualified voters of counties, boroughs, and universities.
It is agreed that the Commons were no part of the great council till some ages after the Conquest. --Hume.
3. Provisions; food; fare, -- as that provided at a common table in colleges and universities.
Their commons, though but coarse, were nothing scant. --Dryden.
4. A club or association for boarding at a common table, as in a college, the members sharing the expenses equally; as, to board in commons.
5. A common; public pasture ground.
To shake his ears, and graze in commons. --Shak.
{Doctors' Commons}, a place near St. Paul's Churchyard in London where the doctors of civil law used to common together, and where were the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts and offices having jurisdiction of marriage licenses, divorces, registration of wills, etc.
{To be on short commons}, to have a small allowance of food. [Colloq.]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
commons
noun
1: a piece of open land for recreational use in an urban area; "they went for a walk in the park" [syn: {park}, {common}, {green}]
2: a pasture subject to common use [syn: {common land}]
3: class composed of persons lacking noble or knightly or gentle rank [syn: {commonalty}, {commonality}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
63 Moby Thesaurus words for "commons": C ration, K ration, allotment, allowance, board, bourgeoisie, cafeteria, common, common people, common run, common sort, commonage, commonality, commonalty, commoners, dinette, dining car, dining hall, dining room, dining saloon, emergency rations, field rations, laborers, linendrapers, lower classes, lower middle class, lower orders, lumpen proletariat, meals, mess, mess hall, messroom, middle class, middle orders, ordinary people, paradise, park, peasantry, plain folks, plain people, pleasance, pleasure garden, pleasure ground, proletariat, public park, rank and file, rations, refectory, restaurant, salle a manger, shopkeepers, short commons, small tradesmen, the lower cut, the other half, the third estate, toilers, toiling class, tucker, upper middle class, vulgus, working class, working people
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