Vul·gar a.
1. Of or pertaining to the mass, or multitude, of people; common; general; ordinary; public; hence, in general use; vernacular. “As common as any the most vulgar thing to sense. ”
Things vulgar, and well-weighed, scarce worth the praise. --Milton.
It might be more useful to the English reader . . . to write in our vulgar language. --Bp. Fell.
The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class. --Bancroft.
2. Belonging or relating to the common people, as distinguished from the cultivated or educated; pertaining to common life; plebeian; not select or distinguished; hence, sometimes, of little or no value. “Like the vulgar sort of market men.”
Men who have passed all their time in low and vulgar life. --Addison.
In reading an account of a battle, we follow the hero with our whole attention, but seldom reflect on the
vulgar heaps of slaughter. --Rambler.
3. Hence, lacking cultivation or refinement; rustic; boorish; also, offensive to good taste or refined feelings; low; coarse; mean; base; as, vulgar men, minds, language, or manners.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. --Shak.
Vulgar fraction. Arith. See under Fraction.
Frac·tion n.
1. The act of breaking, or state of being broken, especially by violence. [Obs.]
Neither can the natural body of Christ be subject to any fraction or breaking up. --Foxe.
2. A portion; a fragment.
Some niggard fractions of an hour. --Tennyson.
3. Arith. or Alg. One or more aliquot parts of a unit or whole number; an expression for a definite portion of a unit or magnitude.
Common fraction, or Vulgar fraction, a fraction in which the number of equal parts into which the integer is supposed to be divided is indicated by figures or letters, called the denominator, written below a line, over which is the numerator, indicating the number of these parts included in the fraction; as ½, one half, ⅖, two fifths.
Complex fraction, a fraction having a fraction or mixed number in the numerator or denominator, or in both. --Davies & Peck.
Compound fraction, a fraction of a fraction; two or more fractions connected by of.
Continued fraction, Decimal fraction, Partial fraction, etc. See under Continued, Decimal, Partial, etc.
Improper fraction, a fraction in which the numerator is greater than the denominator.
Proper fraction, a fraction in which the numerator is less than the denominator.