historical the common people regarded as a part of a political system, especially in Britain:the state was divided into clergy, nobility, and commonsboth lords and commons won some important concessions
2 [treated as singular] land or resources belonging to or affecting the whole of a community:the mismanagement of a commonsthe global commons of Antarctica
US a dining hall in a school or college.
3 archaic provisions shared in common; rations.
short commons
archaic insufficient allocation of food:a life of short commons
