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Glite Dictionary
common nuisance

common nuisance

7.0
A problem that unfairly harms something everyone in a community has the right to use
  • noun
  • Formal
translation icon : molestia común
  • Hodgins was charged with possession of methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school, a Class B felony, and maintaining a common nuisance, a Class D felony.

Examples

  • The construction site became a common nuisance for the local residents due to the loud noise and dust.

  • I don't got time for a common nuisance.

    Gunless (2010)

  • Jones was charged with visiting a common nuisance, a Class B misdemeanor.

    Blog text (28)

  • Reece is charged with neglect of a dependent, a Class C felony, and maintaining a common nuisance, a Class D felony.

    Blog text (28)

  • Pardue was charged with possession of methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a park, a Class A felony; neglect of a dependent, a Class C felony; and maintaining a common nuisance, a Class D felony.

    Blog text (28)

  • After several earlier arrests at the behest of his neighbors for Sunday desecration, King was eventually found guilty in a state circuit court of the more serious charge of creating a common nuisance because he had persisted in plowing his fields on Sundays.

    Academic text (1998)

  • As the abandoned house deteriorated, it turned into a common nuisance for the neighborhood, attracting pests and vandalism.

  • The illegal dump was declared a common nuisance because it affected the health and safety of everyone in the area.

Synonyms

public nuisance
vscommon nuisance
  • Formal
4 5.7

Something that harms or annoys many people in an area

is the legal category often treated as an offense rather than the physical act

Surface Forms

common nuisance singular
common nuisances plural

Morphology

common + nuisance

The meaning 'a nuisance that unreasonably interferes with a right shared by the general public' is directly derivable from combining 'common' (shared among people) with 'nuisance' (a wrongful interference). Although the term has a specific legal nuance ('public' vs. 'private' nuisance), a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer that it refers to a nuisance affecting the public or many people.

Etymology

The phrase common nuisance comes from old law and paints a simple picture: common means shared by the whole community and nuisance is a harmful trouble, like a river full of trash that bothers everyone. So, common nuisance now means a public problem that stops people using a place or right 'shared by everyone'.