| 释义 |
ˈtown-house, town house
1. a. A municipal building containing the public offices, court-house, and town hall, and in some continental towns the official residence of the chief magistrate. Cf. F. hôtel de ville; Ger. stadthaus. In England now commonly called town hall.
1530Palsgr. 282/1 Towne house, pretoire. 1550Bp. Hooper Serm. Jonas v. 106 Certeyne pictures in the towne house at Basyll. 1579in W. H. Turner Sel. Rec. Oxford (1880) 403 Suche arrowes as the towne howsse nowe hathe. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 396 The greater part of the Towne [Buckingham] beareth North, wherein standeth the Towne-house. 1678Lond. Gaz. No. 1287/3 The Burghers of Ghent have been commanded to bring in their Arms to the Town-House. 1701[see town hall]. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 333 Placentia. On the area before the town-house are two bronze equestrian statues. 1765T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. I. iii. 381 A long declaration was read from the balcony..of the town-house. 1773Hist. Brit. Dom. in N. Amer. iii. ii. 71 The city-hall, or town-house, is a strong brick building, two stories in heighth. 1857Whittier Last Walk Autumn xxi, The painted, shingly town-house where The freeman's vote for Freedom falls. 1896Barrie Sent. Tommy, If you jest see'd the Thrums townhouse!
b. U.S. (a) An almshouse, a workhouse. (b) A town prison (Cent. Dict. 1891).
c1870in Dict. Amer. Eng. (1944) IV. 2341/2 Town⁓house, an almshouse.—Conn. 1889Farmer Americanisms s.v. Town, Townhouse,..in Connecticut, an almshouse. 1889R. Cooke Steadfast 28 Just as soon as the road settled she should ‘cart her off to the town-house’.
2. a. (Now usu. town house.) A house in a town; a residence in town, as distinguished from a country house.
1771Smollett Humph. Cl. I. 185 He has his town⁓house, and his country-house, his coach, and his post⁓chaise. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Man of Many Fr. I. 284, I have no other town house to offer. 1862H. Marryat Year in Sweden II. 393 The monks possessed a town-house in Söfde. 1886C. E. Pascoe London of To-day xxii. (ed. 3) 211 Where now the maze of little courts and side streets extends to the Thames Embankment, there stood, centuries ago, the town-houses of the bishops, the ambassadors, and the powerful nobles. 1888Saintsbury Marlborough x. 203 Tradition..assigns the fine Georgian house now used as the judge's lodgings [Oxford] as having been built by the Duke for a town house.
b. = terrace house s.v. terrace n. 7. orig. U.S.
Often in multiple units designed in a stylish or adventurous manner.
1965Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 13 July 13 The City Planning Commission..is to receive a proposed ordinance permitting the development of privately owned town houses. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 5/3 It would include 1,800 dwellings comprising apartments, maisonettes and townhouses for 5,600 people. 1971Rand Daily Mail (Home Owner) 27 Mar. 7/2 City dwellers are gravitating towards high density living (flat complexes, town houses). 1971Ideal Home Apr. 69/2 Something become apparent is that..the modern terrace, even under the pretty name of ‘town house’, is not popular. 1977Telegraph (Brisbane) 28 Oct. 49/3 The townhouse is a two-storey ‘unit’ which features a separate courtyard and more privacy than a home unit. 1977Detroit Free Press 11 Dec. i–b/2 One east side developer,..would like very much to build a community of townhouses along one of the canals that leads to the Detroit river. 1982Habitat Catal. 1982/83 28/3 Room 2 has a ‘metropolitan’ style associated with townhouse living. |