class systemn.

1821 G. Grote Statement Question Parl. Reform ii. iii. 53 This plan is in spirit and principle a precise copy of the ancient Roman class-system.

1836 T. Keightley Hist. Rome ii. viii. 176 As the class-system was no longer suited to the levies, they were now made from the tribes.

1875 Academy 3 Apr. 344/3 No attempt is made to account for this persistent recollection at Rome of the Servian class-system.

1952 H. Hill Rom. Middle Class in Republican Period 40 The cavalry, standing as they did somewhat apart from the class system as applied to the infantry, do not seem to have been directly affected.

2003 G. Woolf Cambr. Illustr. Hist. Rom. World 326 This expansion also necessitated innovations in Servius Tullius's class system.

1844 Church 1 68/1 He is, indeed, an advocate of the class-system. The most successful missionaries of his own denomination have long practised it.

1847 Eng. Rev. Dec. 348 The principle..which is at the bottom of the class-system, is a different one from that on which the auricular confession is founded.

1889 Christian Advocate 16 May 311/4 The class system, commended by critics of all schools for its practical wisdom, and acknowledged by all students of Methodism as one of the chief sources of its remarkable success, is in such a state of decay [etc.].

1957 New Cambr. Mod. Hist. VII. vi. 138 The class system..was not only a useful way to collect money, but splendid device for pastoral oversight.

1994 L. H. Mamiya in J. P. Wind & J. W. Lewis Portraits of Twelve Relig. Communities iv. 273 Bethel members participate in a host of groups and ministries: Sunday school; one of eight choirs; the weeknight classes that are part of the Methodist class system; [etc.].

1865 Colman's Rural World 15 June 90/3 A relaxation of the rigor of the class system opens the advantages of the Institution in every department, to every one who is competent to avail himself of them, without regard to his attainments or deficiencies in other departments.

1870 N. Porter Amer. Colleges 191 The class system is essential to an efficient and energetic common college life.

1900 Chicago Sunday Tribune 3 June 11/1 (heading) No class systems... Oxford and Cambridge confer degrees at frequent intervals during term time, and the date of one's degree carries with it no particular significance and no charm of association and recollection as it does in America.

1958 J. S. Brubacher & W. Rudy Higher Educ. in Transition iii. 46 The development of the class system is a unique feature of American college life.

2005 R. Hayhoe in C. Li Bridging Minds across Pacific ii. 28 The class system maintained the atmosphere of the college, with very close relations among students of each year.

1877 L. H. Morgan Anc. Society iii. iii. 425 The significance of the Australian class system presents itself anew in this connection.

1958 P. Johnson in N. Mackenzie Conviction 213 The essence of a class system is that property, birth and upbringing, rather than virtue or ability, determine status, power and income.

1967 J. M. Argyle Psychol. Interpersonal Behaviour iv. 83 A development in the British class system during the 1950s was the emergence of an upper working class.

1990 R. Critchfield Among British ii. 144 As Britain's class system got a bit less rigid, it gave newly prosperous yuppies more chance to define themselves by what they could buy.

2005 D. McWilliams Pope's Children ii. 18 This educational uplift will have a permanent effect on the nature of the class system here. It has already led to the emergence of a new creative class.