Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - people

~1 n 1 persons  (Were there many people at the meeting? | Most people in our neighborhood drive to work. | a retirement home for elderly people)  (- see person) 2 »PEOPLE IN GENERAL« people in general, or people other than yourself  (Sometimes people think we're sisters. | People enjoy reading about the rich and famous. | theatre/business etc people)  (Computer people are notoriously bad at arithmetic.) 3 the people all the ordinary people in a country or a state who do not have special rank or position  (Abraham Lincoln spoke of `government of the people, by the people, for the people'. | the common people | man of the people)  (a politician who was regarded as a man of the people because his father had been a miner) 4 a race or nation  (the national heritage of the American people | the peoples of Africa | The Chinese people share a common written language.)  (- see race1) 5 sb's people plural a) the people that God, a king, or a leader rules or leads  (the exaltation of God's people) b) your parents, grandparents etc  (His people have lived in this valley for centuries.) c) old-fashioned your close relatives, especially parents  (Come home with me to meet my people.) 6 of all people spoken used to say that someone is the one person who you would not have expected to do something  (Why should he, of all people, get a promotion? | You of all people should have known better.) 7 AmE spoken used to get the attention of a group of people  (Listen up, people!)  (- compare folk1 (3), - see also little people, person) ~2 v 1 be peopled with/by literary to be filled with people or things of a particular type  (Her little world was peopled with imaginary friends.) 2 technical to live in a place; inhabit  (the tribes who first peopled the peninsula)