public square

noun

Definition of public square

1 : an open public area in a city or town where people gather St. Mark's Square in Venice is sinking at a time when this Italian city's popularity is rising. The world's most famous public square now floods an average of three out of every five days.— Tom Crosby
2 : the sphere of public opinion In an August 2007 speech, then-New York governor Eliot Spitzer expounded upon Reinhold Niebuhr and the virtues of humility in the public square.— Lisa Miller … using legal action to cow an opponent into silence, and withdrawal from the public square.— Mark Steyn

First Known Use of public square

1757, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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