From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpublic schoolˌpublic ˈschool noun [countable] 1 SESin Britain, a private school for children aged between 13 and 18, whose parents pay for their education. The children often live at the school while they are studying → state school2 SESa free local school, especially in the US and Scotland, controlled and paid for by the government → private school
Examples from the Corpus
public school• But as public school attendance became mandatory, and as graduation thus became commonplace, the number of college students increased astronomically.• Harriet played in tennis doubles and her public school boyfriends crowded in to eat her jam tarts.• Lynette, Deborah, and Doreen, all in eighth grade in public school.• Thus, from the first day, the public school knew Casey was on Ritalin.• She switched to public school for only one reason: basketball. 