Adjacent Words

Town definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TOWN, n.
1. Originally, a walled or fortified place; a collection of houses inclosed with walls, hedges or pickets for safety. Rahab's house was on the town wall. Josh 2.
A town that hath gates and bars. 2 Samuel 23.
2. Any collection of houses, larger than a village. In this use the word is very indefinite, and a town may consist of twenty houses, or of twenty thousand.
3. In England, any number of houses to which belongs a regular market, and which is not a city or the see of a bishop.
A town, in modern times, is generally without walls, which is the circumstance that usually distinguishes it from a city.
In the United States, the circumstance that distinguishes a town from a city, is generally that a city is incorporated with special privileges, and a town is not. But a city is often called a town.
4. The inhabitants of a town. The town voted to send two representatives to the legislature, or they voted to lay a tax for repairing the highways.
5. In popular usage, in America, a township; the whole territory within certain limits.
6. In England,the court end of London.
7. The inhabitants of the metropolis.
8. The metropolis. The gentleman lives in town in winter; in summer he lives in the country. The same form of expression is used in regard to other populous towns.
TOWN'-CLERK, n. [town and clerk.] An officer who keeps the records of a town, and enters all its official proceedings.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city; "they drive through town on their way to work"
2: the people living in a municipality smaller than a city; "the whole town cheered the team" [syn: town, townspeople, townsfolk]
3: an administrative division of a county; "the town is responsible for snow removal" [syn: township, town]
4: United States architect who was noted for his design and construction of truss bridges (1784-1844) [syn: Town, Ithiel Town]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English t?n enclosure, village, town; akin to Old High German z?n enclosure, Old Irish dún fortress Date: before 12th century 1. dialect England a cluster or aggregation of houses recognized as a distinct place with a place-name ; hamlet 2. a. a compactly settled area as distinguished from surrounding rural territory b. a compactly settled area usually larger than a village but smaller than a city c. a large densely populated urban area ; city d. an English village having a periodic fair or market 3. a particular town or city under consideration <the circus came to town> 4. the city or urban life as contrasted with the country 5. a. the inhabitants of a city or town <practically the whole town turned out for the parade> b. the townspeople of a college or university town as distinct from the academic community <relations between town and gown> 6. a New England territorial and political unit usually containing under a single town government both rural areas and urban areas not having their own charter of incorporation; also a New England community governed by a town meeting 7. a group of prairie dog burrows • town adjective

Britannica Concise

Capital (pop.,
1995: 16,000), chief port of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, W. Indies. Located on the SW end of the St. Vincent island, it overlooks Kingstown Harbor. Its sites of interest include the Botanic Gardens (founded 1763), the oldest of its kind in the W Hemisphere; Capt. W. Bligh made his 1787 voyage on the Bounty to obtain breadfruit trees from Tahiti for this garden.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a a large urban area with a name, defined boundaries, and local government, being larger than a village and usu. not created a city. b any densely populated area, esp. as opposed to the country or suburbs. c the people of a town (the whole town knows of it). 2 a Brit. London or the chief city or town in one's neighbourhood (went up to town). b the central business or shopping area in a neighbourhood (just going into town). 3 the permanent residents of a university town as distinct from the members of the university (cf. GOWN). 4 US = TOWNSHIP 2. Phrases and idioms: go to town colloq. act or work with energy or enthusiasm. on the town colloq. enjoying the entertainments, esp. the night-life, of a town; celebrating. town clerk 1 US & hist. the officer of the corporation of a town in charge of records etc. 2 Brit. hist. the secretary and legal adviser of a town corporation until 1974. town council the elective governing body in a municipality. town councillor an elected member of this. town crier see CRIER. town gas manufactured gas for domestic and commercial use. town hall a building for the administration of local government, having public meeting rooms etc. town house 1 a town residence, esp. of a person with a house in the country. 2 a terrace house, esp. of a stylish modern type. 3 a house in a planned group in a town. 4 Brit. a town hall. town-major hist. the chief executive officer in a garrison town or fortress. town mayor Brit. the chairman of a town council. town meeting US a meeting of the voters of a town for the transaction of public business. town planning the planning of the construction and growth of towns. Derivatives: townish adj. townless adj. townlet n. townward adj. & adv. townwards adv. Etymology: OE tun enclosure f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Town Town, n. [OE. toun, tun, AS. tun inclosure, fence, village, town; akin to D. tuin a garden, G. zaun a hadge, fence, OHG. zun, Icel. tun an inclosure, homestead, house, Ir. & Gael. dun a fortress, W. din. Cf. Down, adv. & prep., Dune, tine to inclose.] 1. Formerly: (a) An inclosure which surrounded the mere homestead or dwelling of the lord of the manor. [Obs.] (b) The whole of the land which constituted the domain. [Obs.] (c) A collection of houses inclosed by fences or walls. [Obs.] --Palsgrave. 2. Any number or collection of houses to which belongs a regular market, and which is not a city or the see of a bishop. [Eng.] --Johnson. 3. Any collection of houses larger than a village, and not incorporated as a city; also, loosely, any large, closely populated place, whether incorporated or not, in distinction from the country, or from rural communities. God made the country, and man made the town. --Cowper. 4. The body of inhabitants resident in a town; as, the town voted to send two representatives to the legislature; the town voted to lay a tax for repairing the highways. 5. A township; the whole territory within certain limits, less than those of a country. [U. S.] 6. The court end of London;-- commonly with the. 7. The metropolis or its inhabitants; as, in winter the gentleman lives in town; in summer, in the country. Always hankering after the diversions of the town. --Addison. Stunned with his giddy larum half the town. --Pope. Note: The same form of expressions is used in regard to other populous towns. 8. A farm or farmstead; also, a court or farmyard. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Note: Town is often used adjectively or in combination with other words; as, town clerk, or town-clerk; town-crier, or town crier; townhall, town-hall, or town hall; townhouse, town house, or town-house. Syn: Village; hamlet. See Village. Town clerk, an office who keeps the records of a town, and enters its official proceedings. See Clerk. Town cress (Bot.), the garden cress, or peppergrass. --Dr. Prior. Town house. (a) A house in town, in distinction from a house in the country. (b) See Townhouse. Town meeting, a legal meeting of the inhabitants of a town entitled to vote, for the transaction of public bisiness. [U. S.] Town talk, the common talk of a place; the subject or topic of common conversation.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(towns) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. A town is a place with many streets and buildings, where people live and work. Towns are larger than villages and smaller than cities. Many places that are called towns in Britain would be called cities in the United States. ...Saturday night in the small town of Braintree, Essex... Parking can be tricky in the town centre. N-COUNT • You can use the town to refer to the people of a town. The town takes immense pride in recent achievements. N-COUNT: usu sing 2. You use town in order to refer to the town where you live. He admits he doesn't even know when his brother is in town... She left town. 3. You use town in order to refer to the central area of a town where most of the shops and offices are. I walked around town... I caught a bus into town. 4. see also ghost town, hometown, new town 5. If you say that someone goes to town on something, you mean that they deal with it with a lot of enthusiasm or intensity. We really went to town on it, turning it into a full, three-day show... PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR on n 6. If you go out on the town or go for a night on the town, you enjoy yourself by going to a town centre in the evening and spending a long time there visiting several places of entertainment. My idea of luxury used to be going out on the town and coming back in the early hours of the morning... = on the tiles PHRASE: prep PHR, n PHR

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

toun: This word is used to represent a number of different Hob terms in the Old Testament.

(1) When any explanatory word or attendant circumstances show that a "city" was unwalled, and sometimes in the contrary case (1Sa 23:7), the Hebrew `ir is translated "town" by the King James Version, and the Revised Version (British and American) generally agrees with it (De 3:5; 1Sa 27:5; Es 9:19).

(2) Both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) translate chawwoth by "towns" (Nu 32:41; Jos 13:30; 1Ki 4:13; 1Ch 2:23), while chatserim and perazoth both appear in the King James Version as "towns," but in the Revised Version (British and American) as "villages" (Ge 25:16; Zec 2:4). See HAVVOTH-JAIR.

(3) Bath, literally, "daughter," is sometimes found in the plural between the name of a city and chatserim, "villages," as in Jos 15:45 margin, "Ekron, with its daughters and its villages." "Towns" is evidently the appropriate translation, and, even without chatserim, bath is rendered "town" (the Revised Version (British and American) Nu 21:25, etc.). The same use of "daughter" occurs also in the Greek of 1 Macc 5:65 (thugater), the King James Version "town," the Revised Version (British and American) "village," margin "daughter."

(4) the King James Version and the English Revised Version gloss qir, "wall" in Jos 2:15 by rendering it "town wall"; the American Standard Revised Version omits.

(5) The Greek term komopoleis (Mr 1:38), being a combination of the words for "village" and "city," is a clear attempt to describe something between the two, and is well translated "town." (6) the King James Version uses "town" (Mt 10:11 etc.) and "village" (Mt 9:35, etc.) quite indifferently for kome; the Revised Version (British and American) has "village" throughout. For similar changes of the King James Version "town" compare 2 Macc 8:6 (chora); 11:5; 12:21 (chorion, the Revised Version (British and American) "place").

See CITY; VILLAGE.

W. M. Christie

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Place, borough, burgh, village, hamlet, thorp. 2. City, metropolis. 3. Court end (of London). 4. (Local, U. S.) Township.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A woman of the town; a prostitute. To be on the town: to live by prostitution.

Moby Thesaurus

Kreis, archbishopric, archdiocese, arrondissement, bailiwick, bishopric, borough, burgh, burghal, canton, citified, city, civic, commune, community, congressional district, constablewick, county, departement, diocese, district, downtown, duchy, electoral district, electorate, government, hamlet, hundred, interurban, magistracy, metropolis, metropolitan, metropolitan area, midtown, municipal, municipality, oblast, okrug, oppidan, parish, precinct, principality, province, region, riding, sheriffalty, sheriffwick, shire, shrievalty, soke, stake, state, suburban, territory, township, uptown, urban, village, wapentake, ward