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at large
A descriptive term for the election of public officials by an entire governmental unit rather than by subdivisions of the unit. For example, a delegate at large does not represent any specific district or locale, but speaks instead for a much wider group of people.
Idioms and Phrases
Free, unconfined, especially not confined in prison, as in To our distress, the housebreakers were still at large . [1300s]
At length, fully; also, as a whole, in general. For example, The chairman talked at large about the company's plans for the coming year , or, as Shakespeare wrote in Love's Labour's Lost (1:1): “So to the laws at large I write my name” (that is, I uphold the laws in general). This usage is somewhat less common. [1400s]
Elected to represent an entire group of voters rather than those in a particular district or other segment—for example, alderman at large , representing all the wards of a city instead of just one, or delegate at large to a labor union convention . [Mid-1700s]
Example Sentences
PARIS—French authorities said they’ve detained four more people in connection to the Louvre heist, including a man suspected of being the only thief to remain at large after purloining the nation’s crown jewels.
This week, the California Air Resources Board will vote on adopting a new slate of requirements to better identify and more quickly respond to methane leaks and disastrous underground fires at large landfills statewide.
These advances didn’t solve our nation’s inequality, but they did prove that our work was relevant and beneficial to society at large.
He called her “a great hire, wonderful for the La Jolla Playhouse and San Diego for sure, but also for the American theater at large.”
When I worked at the BBC half a lifetime ago, like all staffs at large, public institutions, we had some good gags in corporate self-deprecation.
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