public school

Meanings

1. Certain private schools, particularly (initially) any grammar school operated apart from the personal lands of its students or (from the 19th century) the feepaying secondary schools which developed from or were modelled upon them; a British boarding school.
2. A publicly funded and administered school; (UK, Ireland) such schools in the context of other countries.
3. A college or university.

Etymology

From public + school: originally, “public” in the sense of "communal" and contrasted with personal tutors; later, "state-run" and contrasted with private schools.