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单词 town
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townn.

Brit. /taʊn/, U.S. /taʊn/
Forms: Old English tuun (rare), Old English–Middle English tun, early Middle English cunes (plural, transmission error), early Middle English tuon, Middle English owne (transmission error), Middle English thoun, Middle English thowne, Middle English ton, Middle English tone, Middle English toown (in a late copy), Middle English tounne, Middle English touune, Middle English tovne, Middle English towe (transmission error), Middle English townn, Middle English townne, Middle English towun, Middle English tune, Middle English twune, Middle English–1600s toun, Middle English–1600s toune, Middle English–1700s towne, Middle English– town, late Middle English tonn- (in compounds), 1500s toen, 1500s tounn, 1600s toone, 1600s touen, 1600s townde, 1600s twon, 1600s twone; English regional 1800s– tahn (Yorkshire), 1800s– tain (Cheshire), 1800s– tawwn (Cumberland), 1800s– toon (northern and Leicestershire), 1800s– tun (Leicestershire); Irish English 1800s teoune (Wexford), 1800s– toon (northern), 1900s– toun (northern); Scottish pre-1700 thon, pre-1700 thoun, pre-1700 thoune, pre-1700 thowine, pre-1700 thown, pre-1700 thowne, pre-1700 ton, pre-1700 tone, pre-1700 touin, pre-1700 toume (transmission error), pre-1700 tounn, pre-1700 tovn, pre-1700 tovne, pre-1700 towen, pre-1700 towine, pre-1700 towinthe, pre-1700 townd, pre-1700 townith, pre-1700 townn, pre-1700 towun, pre-1700 towune, pre-1700 tun, pre-1700 tune, pre-1700 1700s toune, pre-1700 1700s towne, pre-1700 1700s– toon, pre-1700 1700s– toun, pre-1700 1700s– town.
Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian tūn fence, fenced field, garden, Old Saxon -tūn (in scranctūn enclosing fence), Old Dutch tūn fence (Middle Dutch tuun hedge, fence, enclosure, Dutch tuin , now chiefly in sense ‘yard, garden’), Middle Low German tūn hedge, fence, Old High German zūn fence, fortification (Middle High German zūn , German Zaun , now only in sense ‘fence’), Old Icelandic tún fenced plot, enclosure, infield, Faroese tún yard next to a house, Norwegian tun farmyard, Old Swedish tun enclosed piece of land, yard (Swedish tun yard next to a house, garden, (regional: Gotland) fence), Danish tun yard next to a house (in early modern Danish with sense ‘fence’, now rare) < a Germanic base either cognate with or borrowed < the Celtic base of Gaulish dūnon fortified enclosure, hill fort, also ‘hill’, Early Irish dún fortress, Welsh †din fortress, hill fort, city (12th cent.; compare its derivative dinas , with the same senses (13th cent.)), Old Breton din fortress (Breton din ), further etymology uncertain and disputed (see note). In sense 1c probably < the unattested Norn cognate of the Scandinavian words listed above. Developments in Germanic and Celtic. Both the Germanic and Celtic words refer to enclosures, either the enclosed space or the enclosing structure (or both). It is uncertain which of these was primary, although a primary sense denoting the structure (e.g. a fence or rampart) appears likely (for a similar semantic ambiguity compare enclosure n. 3 and 4). However, in early use, such senses appear to be restricted to the West Germanic languages, where they often co-occur with senses relating to the space enclosed. The North Germanic words on the other hand apparently referred originally only to the space; the sense ‘fence’ in early modern Danish and regional Swedish could be due to influence from Middle Low German. (No cognate is attested in Gothic.) In early use, the Celtic words consistently denote fortified enclosures, but the existence of an Early Irish verb dúnaid closes (Irish dún ) may suggest that there had also been a sense focusing on the act of enclosing (and by implication, the enclosing fence or rampart). A sense ‘hill’ in Gaulish is apparently secondary and may have developed because Iron Age fortifications were often situated on hilltops and promontories ( > French regional (Haute-Loire) dun hill; compare also down n.1, which may reflect a similar borrowing). The differing senses found in the Celtic and Germanic languages may in part reflect different settlement traditions in the (pre-Roman) Iron Age, with heavily enclosed settlements common in the Celtic-speaking world (including Britain and Gaul), but not in the (continental) regions in which Germanic languages are eventually attested. The Germanic word was borrowed into Slavonic languages, compare Old Russian tyn′′ (Russian tyn ), Czech týn , all in senses ‘fence’, ‘wall’, ‘stockade’, Serbian Church Slavonic tynŭ wall, Serbian and Croatian tin partition. Possible further etymology. It is often assumed that the Germanic base was borrowed from a Celtic base, perhaps with a suggested Germanic base of down n.1 as its cognate. This view apparently goes back to J. Pokorny ( Indogermanisches etymol. Wörterbuch (1959) 263), who reconstructs an underlying sense ‘something that has been heaped up’ (ultimately < an Indo-European base with the sense ‘smoke, dust’; compare classical Latin fūmus fume n.), comparing classical Latin fūnes burial rite (see funeral adj.), for which he posits an unattested original sense ‘burial mound’. However, such a borrowing would need to have happened before the First Germanic Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law) affected voiced dentals, which would be unusually early. Some scholars assume that the bases are cognates instead, but neither view is discussed in detail by its proponents. For a summary see R. Schuhmann in J. Hoops's Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (ed. 2, 2007) XXXIV. 448–9. C. Watkins (‘A Celtic-Latin-Hittite Etymology’ in T. Abusch et al. Lingering Over Words (1990) 451–3) accepts the connection between the Celtic and Germanic words and classical Latin fūnes , but suggests an alternative explanation for the latter as ‘closing ceremony’, further comparing (without the nasal) Hittite tuḫḫušta it is finished < an Indo-European base with the sense ‘to close’, which would also fit with the emphasis on enclosure in the Germanic and Celtic languages. Relationships with other Indo-European words have also sometimes been suggested, as has a non-Indo-European (substrate) origin. Early semantic development in English. The early history of the word in English is rendered somewhat unclear by gaps in the Old English textual evidence and disputed points of English settlement history. Moreover, the sense of the relevant Latin equivalents used in English sources is often not entirely clear, in particular the uses of classical Latin villa villa n. in post-classical Latin. With the West Germanic sense ‘fence, hedge’ (apparently unattested in Old English) compare the Old English derivative verb tȳnan tine v.1 (compare especially tine v.1 2b), and the compounds æcer-tȳning fencing of fields, gafol-tȳning material for fencing paid as rent (see tining n.1). It has been suggested that this sense of the noun may occasionally be reflected in place names, although there appear to be no clear and undisputed instances of such use. Sense 1a apparently reflects the sense development from ‘fence, hedge’ (i.e. that with which an area is enclosed) to ‘enclosed piece of ground’ (compare enclosure n. 3, 4). This sense is most clearly attested in a range of compounds in which the use of the word is attested with reference to plots of land (not necessarily fenced-off, but distinct from open fields) dedicated to purposes other than human habitation, such as æppel-tūn orchard, dēor-tūn deer-park, game preserve, gærs-tūn garston n., wyrt-tūn garden, etc. (compare also town cress n.). Uses of the simplex in this sense are often very difficult to distinguish from (the much more common) sense 1b, denoting cultivated land surrounding or belonging to one or more human dwellings; in fact, it is doubtful how long the sense ‘enclosed piece of ground’ can be assumed to have survived outside compounds (it is notable that all of the later examples at sense 1a are from biblical translations). Senses 2 and 3 reflect a shift in emphasis away from the enclosed land (along with any associated habitations) to the habitations themselves. It seems evident that already in early use (as still in Scots regional use: see sense 2) the word must sometimes have denoted a single farmstead, but this use is not well documented in Old English, whereas use with reference to the estates of persons or institutions of higher rank, of larger extent and with a greater number of buildings and inhabitants, is more clearly recorded. Early attestations of the word in the sense ‘village, hamlet’ (see sense 3a) may refer to settlements on such estates, without therefore being restricted to these. It is evident that settlements of different kinds could be denoted by the word, and it can be uncertain what size and level of organization is implied (compare discussion at township n.). Towns, in the sense current in modern standard English (see sense 4), often grew from settlements on secular or ecclesiastical estates, the growth of municipal boroughs in particular perhaps being associated with settlements on royal estates. However, in early use a settlement called a tūn would usually have been smaller or of lower status than one called a burg borough n. (the latter originally denoting a fortified settlement). Despite this, the word is already in Old English occasionally applied to places of very considerable size such as London (compare quot. OE at sense 4c and see note at that sense). Use in place names. These early sense developments are to some extent reflected by the use of the word in early place names, in which the word is a frequent second element, although the interpretation of these also presents many difficulties. The place-name element apparently occurs especially in the names of what were originally minor or secondary settlements (compare senses 2, 3a), as e.g. Wintrintune, Lincolnshire (1086; now Winterton), which may originally have been a settlement dependent on Wintringeham, Lincolnshire (1086; now Winteringham). For further discussion of the early place-name element and its contexts see A. H. Smith Eng. Place-name Elements (1956) II.188–98, V. Watts Cambr. Dict. Eng. Place-names (2004) p. xlviii, C. Hough Toponymicon & Lexicon in North-West Europe (2010) 10-11, M. Gelling in H. Hamerow et al. Oxf. Handbk. Anglo-Saxon Archaeol. (2011) 995–6.
I. Senses relating to a place.
1.
†a. An enclosed piece of ground; a field, a garden; a yard, a court. Obsolete.In translations of the Vulgate, occasionally rendering Latin villa (see villa n.) and also praedium (see predial adj.) in contexts where there is no mention of inhabitants or dwellings: cf. discussion in etymology section.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > [noun] > an enclosed space or place > an enclosed piece of ground
hawc825
towneOE
purprisea1275
hainc1275
wick1301
cerne1393
firmancea1522
haining1535
haya1640
pena1640
park1658
eOE Corpus Gloss. (1890) 35/1 Cors, numerus militum, tuun.
eOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Parker) anno 867 Þy ilcan geare gefor Ealchstan biscep—& he hæfde þæt bisceprice..æt Scireburnan, & his lic liþ þær on tune.
eOE Bald's Leechbk. (Royal) (1865) i. lxi. 132 Harewyrt lytelu oftost weaxeþ on tune.
OE (Northumbrian) Lindisf. Gospels: Matt. xxvi. 36 Tunc uenit iesus cum illis in uillam quae dicitur gesemani : ða cuomon ðe hælend mið him in gemæra uel in tun [c1384 Wycliffite, E.V. toun; 1526 Tyndale place, 1535 Coverdale felde, 1539 Great farme place, 1560 Geneva place, 1609 Rheims village, 1611 King James place; Gk. χωρίον] ðe uel ðiu hata gezemani.
OE West Saxon Gospels: John (Corpus Cambr.) iv. 5 Neah þam tune [L. juxta praedium; Gk. πλησίον τοῦ χωρίου; c1384 Wycliffite, E.V. the manere, gloss or feeld, a1425 L.V. the place].
a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Matt. xxii. 5 But thei..wenten forth, oon in to his toun [c1384 E.V. vyneȝerd; L. villam; Gk. ἀγρὸν; OE West Saxon Gospels: Corpus Cambr. tune; 1611 King James farme], anothir to his marchaundise.
b. The enclosed land surrounding or belonging to a single dwelling or village community; a manor or estate, including its dwellings and buildings; (now usually) a farm and its associated buildings, spec. (in Scotland) a farm held in joint tenancy, a township (township n. 6). Scottish in later use.In quot. 16282: †a parish, when this is coextensive with a manor (obsolete).Quot. lOE2 is a late copy of a 7th-cent. legal code.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > [noun]
townOE
wick1086
farm1414
gainery1424
farmhold1471
room?a1513
farm place1526
colony1566
labouring1604
podere1605
fund1694
location1813
bowery1842
ranch1865
the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > [noun] > an enclosed space or place > an enclosed piece of ground > round a dwelling or village
townOE
OE Bounds (Sawyer 786) in D. Hooke Worcs. Anglo-Saxon Charter-bounds (1990) 190 Þis sind þara feower tuna londgemæra wihtlafes tun & eadbrihtincg tun & niwan tun & ælflæde tun.
lOE Laws: Gerefa (Corpus Cambr.) i. 453 Se scadwis gerefa sceal..witan..ælcre tilðan timan, ðe to tune belimpð.
lOE Laws of Æðelberht (Rochester) xvii. 4 Gif man in mannes tun ærest geirneþ, vi scillingum gebete; se þe æfter irneþ: iii scillingas.
a1225 (c1200) Vices & Virtues (1888) 77 Da riche menn ðe laneð here eihte uppe chierches and uppe ða chirche-landes oðer uppe tunes..hie bieð idemd for gouleres.
a1300 (c1275) Physiologus (1991) 264 Fox is hire to name..Ðe coc & te capun ȝe feccheð ofte in ðe tun.
a1425 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1869) I. 22 (MED) A man hadde a fermour, as keper of a toun.
c1480 (a1400) St. Machor 93 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 3 He gaf of heretable rycht to godis seruice al þat ton In-to fre possessione.
1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng vi. f. vi The catell of one towneshyppe gothe ouer his meyre or bounde in to the waste grounde of the other towne.
1541 in Sc. Hist. Rev. (1910) 7 360 Galtovnsyd dornyk and newsteid Quhilkis stedingis and tovnis..Is extreme lauborit yat yai ar nocht sa fertill nor plentwuss as yai war in auld tymes.
1611 in H. Maule Reg. de Panmure (1874) I. p. xciii The ground of this towne is wery fertil, and goud for al kynd of cornes that growes in Scotland.
1628 E. Coke 1st Pt. Inst. Lawes Eng. §1. 5 By the name of a towne, Villa, a mannor may passe.
1628 E. Coke 1st Pt. Inst. Lawes Eng. §193. 125 b If a matter be alledged in Parochia, it shall be intended in Law that it containeth no more Townes then one, vnlesse the party doth shew the contrary.
1693 in J. Robertson Illustr. Topogr. & Antiq. Aberdeen & Banff (1857) III. 520 The town and lands called the dominical lands of Maynes of Lessendrum with the manor place houses..and pertinents.
1733 in D. G. Barron Court Bk. Urie (1892) 150 Each tennent within the touns of the lands of Ury.
1785 J. Mill Diary (1889) 75 Some hill towns had a good deal of corn on the ground to shear.
1820 J. Loch Acct. Improvem. Estates Marquess of Stafford 49 A certain district was let to the whole body of tenants resident in each ‘town’, who bound themselves, conjointly and severally, for the payment of the whole rent.
1884 Rep. Condition Crofters & Cottars Highlands & Islands Scotl. I. 740 It is impossible for us to work the small piece of land we have got, because we have never got a road made through the town.
1933 Scots Mag. Feb. 330 He didn't look long for a toun of his own.
1952 J. R. Allan North-east Lowlands Scotl. ii. 69 As to the rest of the estate: scattered throughout it were ‘touns’ or townships, each consisting of about eight houses, with or without lums.
1986 A. Fenton Shape of Past iii. 63 A part of the beach was allocated to each of the six districts or ‘toons’ in the island [of North Ronaldsay].
c. Scottish (Shetland). A field adjacent to a farmhouse or croft, a home field.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > [noun] > enclosed land or field > other fields
broom-fieldc1314
summer field1597
roughet1616
share acre1641
work field1684
town park1701
tath-field1753
town1822
gas field1833
summer country1860
broom-croft1871
infield1875
1822 S. Hibbert Descr. Shetland Islands 414 If a Shetlander incloses land from the scathold, and surround it with a fence, it is still called a Town.
1949 P. A. Jamieson Lett. on Shetland 220 Da müddoo in the lower toon of his neighbour's croft.
1987 A. P. Cohen Whalsay iv. 107 Man, I mind me oot i' da toon, among da corn [oats], an' da docken sparrows an' corncrakes were in deir hundreds!
2002 C. De Luca Plain Song 46 Birth's bassel owre, da howdie maks fur hom Doon da toons o Neegirt, wi tengs o fire fur licht.
2. The house or group of houses or buildings occupying the enclosed land surrounding or belonging to a single dwelling, a village community, or a manor or estate (cf. sense 1b); the farmstead or homestead on a farm or holding. British regional (chiefly Scottish) in later use.Sometimes difficult to distinguish from sense 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmstead > [noun]
towneOE
steading1472
farm-steading1533
onstead1551
farmtown1609
homestead1610
farmstead1753
homesteading1812
werf1818
plaas1834
head station1835
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) ii. xi. 140 Þes tun [L. villa; i.e. Yeavering] wæs forlæten in þara æfterfylgendra cyninga tidum, & oðer wæs fore þæm getimbred.
OE Old Eng. Martyrol. (Julius) 9 June 117 Ða ongan se tun bernan on þære nihte. Þa forburnon ealla þara monna hus þe on þæm tune wæron.
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough interpolation) anno 1070 Þa lægdon hi fyr on & forbærndon ealle þa munece huses & eall þa tun buton ane huse.
c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. x. l. 134 Barouns and Burgeis and Bonde men of tounes [a1425 Univ. Oxf. towne].
c1535 Ploughman's Tale iii. sig. C.vi Thresshynge & dykynge fro towne to towne.
1551 R. Robinson tr. T. More Vtopia sig. Div They whyche plucked downe fermes and townes of husbandrye, shall buylde them up agayne.
1650 in W. M. Ogilvie Extracts Rec. Presbytery of Brechin (1876) 23 Isobell..hard such a din in the byr that shee thought that all the toun had been falling.
c1686 Depredations Clan Campbell (1816) 42 Taken out of Achingoul..be Lochaber men, ten coues... Item, be them out of that toun, 30 sheep and goats.
a1732 T. Boston Memoirs (1776) xii. 448 I went in to the barn at the end of the town.
1786 R. Burns Cotter's Sat. Night iv, in Poems & Songs (1968) I. 146 Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin A cannie errand to a neebor toun.
1814 W. Scott Waverley I. ix. 124 Waverley learned..from this colloquy; that in Scotland a single house was called a town . View more context for this quotation
1873 J. Brown Round Table Club 126 My corn's close tae the toon this year.
1894 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Toon,..constantly applied to a steading or group of farm buildings with the adjacent cottages.
1918 Kelso Chron. 5 Apr. 4 The story was quickly through the ‘toon’, as the farm places are termed.
1977 A. S. Fraser In Memory Long i. 17 For twa nineteens an' a bittock mair; I've ploo'ed the lan' an' keepit the toon, Bit noo I maun gang, an' it's sair, sair.
1987 A. Hope Caledonian Feast iii. 92 The plan of the farm was invariable. Immediately adjacent to the toun lay the land known as ‘infield’.
3.
a. A (small) group or cluster of dwellings or buildings; a village or hamlet with little or no local government. Also: the inhabitants of such a village or hamlet (cf. sense 7). Now chiefly regional.Sometimes difficult to distinguish from senses 2 and 4a.In some English regional varieties the town is specifically applied to the hamlet or cluster of houses immediately neighbouring a church. Cf. church town n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > village > [noun] > small village or hamlet
towneOE
hamletc1330
hamelc1514
endware1577
endship1590
quillet1597
flect1637
peasantship1762
villaget1781
eOE Erfurt Gloss. (1974) 17 Conpetum, tuun uel ðrop.
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) v. xiii. 424 He..sona aaras & eode to ðære cirican þes tunes [L. villulae oratorium].
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iv. 29 Gifta wæron gewordene on anum tune ðe is geciged Chana on ðam galileiscan earde.
lOE Laws of Æðelred II (Rochester) iii. xv. 232 And se þe reafað man leohtan dæge, & he hit kyþe to þrim tunan, þæt he ne beo nanes fryðes weorðe.
?a1160 Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1137 Hi læiden gæildes on the tunes æure um wile & clepeden it tenserie.
c1261 (?OE) Royal Charter: Edward the Confessor to Chertsey Abbey (Sawyer 1477) in S. E. Kelly Charters of Chertsey Abbey (2015) 168 Þo x hyden lond on Waltham and þe cherche of þau [read þan] seluen tune.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 15921 Ut of wude heo droȝen and wuneden in tunen.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 39 In Mon [sc. Anglesey] beeþ þre hondred townes [L. villas] þre score and þre, and beeþ acounted for þre candredes, þat beeþ þre hundredes.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 14790 Þat es þe tun of bethleem.
c1405 (c1387–95) G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 480 A poure person of a toun [v.r. toune]..Wyd was his parisshe and houses fer a sonder..With hym ther was a Plowman was his broother.
1483 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 89074) (1881) 391 A Towne, pagus, pagulus, pagos grece, villa, villula.
1508 W. Dunbar Ballade Barnard Stewart in Poems (1998) I. 178 In euery cete, village and in toune.
1526 Bible (Tyndale) John xi. f. cxxxvij Lazarus of Bethania the toune off Mary and her sister Martha.
1576 E. Worsely Surv. Mannor of Felsted, Essex (MS) 129 The highway leading from Felsted towards the town of Leighes.
1600 N. Breton Pasquils Mad-cap 8 Take an odde Vicar in a village towne, That onely prayes for plentie and for peace.
a1732 T. Boston Memoirs (1776) vii. 115 The singular circumstances of my charge, all in one little town [i.e. the hamlet of Simprin], within a few paces from one end to the other.
1812 M. Edgeworth Absentee ix, in Tales Fashionable Life VI. 124 He arrived at a village, or as it was called a town, which bore the name of Colambre.
1848 J. Boyce Shandy M'Guire xi. 155 ‘Whisht yer bawlin',’ siz he, ‘an' don't bring the town about us.’
1887 I. Randall Lady's Ranche Life Montana 12 We are only a mile from the town (eight houses and an hôtel); but only think, in this barbarous region, being only a mile from railway station, telegraph, and post-office!
1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. Town, a collection of houses... In all parts of the district the villages are called towns when the collection of houses is specially referred to.
1977 W. A. Winter-Irving Bush Stories 17 Kalkadoon is just better than a hamlet, except that nobody living there would know the meaning of the word hamlet. So it's a town.
2006 P. A. Toth in J. A. Konrath These Guns for Hire 384 I had a small home in a town that couldn't be called a town, but there was nothing else to call it and so we called it a town.
†b. Without article, in prepositional phrases. Human habitation in general; (hence also) human society, the world. Cf. to come to town at Phrases 1, to go to town at Phrases 2, in town at Phrases 3. Obsolete.In later use understood as or merged with sense 4b.
ΚΠ
OE Maxims I 145 Oft mon fereð feor bi tune, þær him wat freond unwiotodne.
a1350 in G. L. Brook Harley Lyrics (1968) 33 (MED) Hire swyre is whittore þen þe swon, ant feyrest may in toune.
c1400 Bk. to Mother (Bodl.) 63 (MED) Gostliche meselis..wolde God þat þei dwelde wiþoute toun as oþer meselis don, for þei ben worse and more perelous and more harm don.
c1410 (c1350) Gamelyn (Harl. 7334) l. 672 (MED) He moste needes walke in woode þat may not walke in towne.
c1450 (a1400) Libeaus Desconus (Calig. A.ii) (1969) l. 549 Þey nyste what ham was best: Taken þey wolde reste And myȝte not come to toun.
a1600 ( W. Stewart tr. H. Boece Bk. Cron. Scotl. (1858) III. 44 That caus[it] ws to leif the wildernes And draw to toun.
4.
a. An inhabited place which is larger than a village, contains more businesses and amenities, and typically has more complete and independent local government; now esp. one smaller than, or not officially designated, a city. (Now the principal sense.)boom town, borough-town, cathedral town, cheaping-town, company town, fishing town, garrison town, ghost town, market town, mill town, mining town, new town, one-horse town, port town, railway town, satellite town, twin town, university town, etc.: see the first element.In Britain, town has been historically applied not only to boroughs (borough n. 3a) and cities (city n. 2a), but also to urban districts (urban district n. at urban adj. and n. Compounds). The distinction between a small town and a large village is not always clear-cut.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [noun]
boroughc893
towneOE
portOE
city?c1225
bourg1536
burgh1798
voil1821
nagar1921
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [noun] > borough > in U.S.
towneOE
cityc1300
borough1718
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) (1980) iv. x. 107 Ealne þone here he het mid þæm scipum þonan wendan.., & up comon æt Leptan þæm tune [L. ad Leptim oppidum].
OE St. Eustace (Julius) in W. W. Skeat Ælfric's Lives of Saints (1900) II. 208 Het þa of ælcre byrig and tunum gegaderian ma cempena. Þa gelamp hit þæt man bead þam tunræde..þæt man sceolde twegen cempan gescyrpan to þære fyrde.
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough interpolation) anno 963 Ic gife þone tun þe man cleopeð Vndela mid eall þet þærto lið, þet is þet man cleopeð Eahtehundred & market & toll.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 8511 Fra land to land. fra tun to tun. Fra wic to wic i tune.
c1225 (?c1200) St. Juliana (Bodl.) 65 (MED) Leaden him i cure up o fowr hweoles ant teon him ȝeonte tun from strete to strete.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 7109 Ane burh he arerde muchele & mare..& for swulche gomen þæ tun [sc. Lancaster] hafde þas þreo nomen.
a1300 Passion our Lord 70 in R. Morris Old Eng. Misc. (1872) 39 As he com in-to þe bureh so rydinde Þe children of þe tune [sc. Jerusalem] comen syngynde.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 5249 Hii come, & londone, & kaunterbury, & oþer tounes nome.
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 19 It [sc. Joppe] is on of the oldest townes of the world.
1472–3 Rolls of Parl.: Edward IV (Electronic ed.) Parl. Oct. 1472 1st Roll §36. m. 20 The chaunceler and scolers of the universite in your toune of Oxonford.
1487 (a1380) J. Barbour Bruce (St. John's Cambr.) xi. 138 Sum lugit without the townys In tentis and in palȝeowynys.
1512 Act 4 Hen. VIII c. 19 §10 In Hundredes, Townes Corporate & nott corporate, parisshes & all other places.
1555 W. Waterman tr. J. Boemus Fardle of Facions 10 Of Tounes, thei made cities, and of villages, Tounes.
1597 in A. Macdonald & J. Dennistoun Misc. Maitland Club (1833) I. 89 Within the toune and citie of Glasgw.
a1600 A. Montgomerie Misc. Poems xlviii. 39 Constantinopil..Eftir his name he callit the citie syn, Becaus he lovit it best of tounis all.
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 497 This is the chiefe towne of all this shire.
a1676 H. Guthry Mem. (1702) 80 A Wonder lasts but nine Nights in a Town (as we use to say).
1747 Addr. to College of Physicians 17 There should be a publick List of all the Doctors in Physick..printed annually, and sent to the Magistrates of every great Town.
1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. Introd. iv. 114 The word town or vill is indeed..now become a generical term, comprehending under it the several species of cities, boroughs, and common towns.
1827 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd i. 7 The town's piper, wi' a blatter.
1835 Dublin Univ. Mag. Oct. 446/1 It would take an acre of paper to tell you the wonders of this town.
1861 M. Pattison in Westm. Rev. Apr. 413 The free towns of Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg.
1914 Times 16 Mar. 5/3 With the development of aviation, every town of importance will need an air-port as it now needs a railway station.
1954 A. Koestler Invisible Writing v. 65 The uniform dreariness of the average Russian town and its lack of architectural character.
1962 Guardian 10 Mar. 16/3 The British Bi-Lingual Association..exists to promote the ‘twinning’ of towns in Britain with towns abroad.
2012 N.Y. Times Mag. 13 May 11/1 The mayor of a small town in central Spain has issued an edict banning 65 types of rude behavior.
b. Without article, chiefly after a preposition or verb. The particular town under consideration, the town nearest to the speaker, or in which the speaker is currently located; the chief town of a region, spec. (in England since c1700) London, as the principal town of (southern) England. Now also: the central part of a town or city, esp. that which forms the main business, shopping, or entertainment district.cross-town, down-town, midtown, up-town, etc.: see the first element.
ΚΠ
OE Wærferð tr. Gregory Dialogues (Hatton) (1900) ii. xix. 142 Unfeorr fram þam mynstre wæs sum tun, on þam wæs mycel meniu manna gecyrred fram deofolgylda bigenge... Ðær on tune [OE Corpus Cambr. in þam ylcan tune] wæron eac sume nunnan.
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 312 Nanmon ne leten in... Ne ga naut ut of tune wið uten siker fere.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2311 Quuan he weren ut tune went, Iosep haueð hem after sent.
1389 in J. T. Smith & L. T. Smith Eng. Gilds (1870) 5 Be he in toun [sc. London] oþer out of toun.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 3346 On morn wit godds beniscon Was mai rebecca lede o ton [Gött. of þe tun].
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xiii. l. 266 Alle Londoun..liketh wel my wafres..Þere was a carful comune whan no carte come to toune With [bake] bred fro stretforth.
1431 in J. T. Smith & L. T. Smith Eng. Gilds (1870) 275 If he be in towne [sc. Cambridge] and comyth not.
1449–50 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VI (Electronic ed.) Parl. Nov. 1449 §50. m. 8 The kyng sent for all his lordes..thenne beyng in towne [sc. London].
1513 in 10th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1885) App. v. 395 That no honie be brought to town but it be good and merchantable.
1593 T. Nashe Strange Newes 83 Since I first knew him about town.
1619 E. M. Bolton tr. Florus Rom. Hist. iv. i. 387 The ambassadours of the Allobroges, at that time, as it hapned, in towne [sc. Rome], were dealt with.
1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 122 Strangers..as soone as they come to Towne [sc. London], enquire for him first of all.
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1646 (1955) II. 473 We invited all the English & Scotts in Towne [sc. Padua]..to a Feast.
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 2. ⁋1 When he is in Town, he lives in Soho-Square.
1711 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1889) III. 127 Dr. Charlett went out of Town [sc. Oxford] on purpose that he might not be present.
1770 S. Foote Lame Lover i. 12 Well known about town.
1815 L. Simond Jrnl. Tour Great Brit. I. 17 At Richmond..I set out by myself for town, as London is called par excellence.
1825 T. Cosnett Footman's Direct. 217 So necessary is it for footmen to know town.
1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xxx. 300 A stately relative..who was out of town.
1884 Belgravia May 350 Could I manage to run up to town for the day, go to the Academy myself, and meet her..in the Water-colour Room?
1902 R. Hichens Londoners 17 I shall leave town at least by the first of July.
1946 ‘E. Crispin’ Moving Toyshop i. 9 Oxford. Ah... A very good idea. I sometimes regret moving my business into Town.
1953 W. S. Burroughs Let. 6 June (1993) 170 I live in an empty shop on the outskirts of town, with a vast rubbly lot all around.
1999 M. Syal Life isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (2000) v. 203 God, town was completely mad today.
2000 M. Gayle Turning Thirty xxviii. 120 He'd..called me out of the blue because he was in town on some conference and wanted to meet up.
c. In apposition to a place name, as London town, Dublin town, etc. Common in Middle English, and later in ballads and folk songs. Now archaic and humorous.Troy-town: see the first element.Occasionally in Old English, where town is usually interpreted as the second element of a compound. In Old English more usually expressed by -burg borough n., as Romeburg (see Rome n.), Lundenburg, etc.
ΚΠ
OE Royal Charter: Æðelbald of Mercia to Bp. Milred (Sawyer 98) in A. J. Robertson Anglo-Saxon Charters (1956) 2 Alle nedbade tuegra sceopa þa þe þær abædde beoð from þæm nedbaderum in Lundentunes hyðe.
c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) l. 418 (MED) Whilom a riche burgeis was, And woned her in Rome toun.
a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 2699 Yn Londun toune fyl swyche a chek.
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) Prol. l. 331 How firste the sparke was kyndeled of envie A-twyxe Grekis and hem of Troye town.
a1500 (c1400) St. Erkenwald (1977) l. 34 Of þis Augustynes art is Erkenwolde bischop At loue London toun and the laghe teches.
1589 A. Dowriche French Hist. f. 4v In Paris towne they did agree great numbers for to meete.
?1635 R. Crimsal Praise of London (single sheet) London Towne is the chiefe for delights.
?a1700 Sir Patrick Spence i, in Percy Reliques (1845) 20/1 The king sits in Dumferling toune.
1782 W. Cowper John Gilpin i A trainband captain eke was he Of famous London town.
1859 Punch 17 Dec. 250/1 Four Merchants who thought themselves wisest and best Of all the folks in Liverpool town.
1886 W. Black White Heather xxxvii. 389 Walking side by side with Meenie through the streets of Glasgow town.
1916 T. Brayton in F. Schurmann War as seen thru German Eyes (ed. 2) 18 In Dublin town they murdered them, Like dogs they shot them down, God's curses on ye, England, now, God strike you, London town.
1962 B. Dylan Oxf. Town (song) in Broadside No. 17 Oxford Town, Oxford Town, Everybody's got their heads bowed down, The sun don't shine a-bove the ground; Ain't a-goin' down to Oxford Town.
2005 L. Kellaway Who moved my Blackberry? (2006) i. 22 It's phenomenally exciting to be with you here in London town!
d. Chiefly with the. A town or city as distinguished from the countryside; urban areas. Cf. country n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > [noun]
townc1405
townward1525
c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Miller's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 194 For she was of towne he profred meede For som folk wol be wonnen for richesse.
1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. cxxvi. f. lxiiv/2 All they that were within slayne and many taken of the towne and of the countrey.
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iii. ii. 399 I am feard in field & town. Goblin, lead them vp & downe. View more context for this quotation
1712 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. c6 Dec. (1965) I. 172 You say I Love the Town.
1717 A. Pope Leaving Town in Wks. 373 As some fond virgin, whom her mother's care Drags from the town to wholesom country air.
1780 Mirror No. 105. ⁋2 I would beg of those who migrate from the city, not to carry too much of the town with them into the country.
1785 W. Cowper Task i. 749 God made the country, and man made the town.
1840 Edinb. Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 54 167 The number of still-born infants was greater in the town than in the country.
1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight viii. 106 This cramping tendency of town as compared to country.
1909 D. Lloyd George in Daily News 30 Apr. 8 Land in the town seems to be let by the grain as if it was radium.
1968 G. M. Williams From Scenes like These vi. 155 Some fancy bag from the town who'd throw it all away on lipstick and nylon stockings and enjoying herself.
2007 N. Rosen How to live Off-grid vii. 297 I met dozens who wanted to quit the town or city and earn their living in the country.
5. figurative and in extended use (from sense 4a).
a. Something, esp. a ship, likened to a town in containing many people.canvas town, marble town, tent town: see the first element.
ΚΠ
1609 P. Erondelle tr. M. Lescarbot Noua Francia i. xi. 66 Since that time we were a whole moneth, seeing nothing else out of our floting towne [Fr. ville flotante], but Skie and water, one ship excepted, neere about the Açors.
1737 T. Cooke Ess. 10 His floating Town the Virgin's Thunder try'd.
1814 W. Tennant Anster Fair (ed. 2) ii. lxvii. 68 Anon uprises..A town of tents, with blankets roofed quick: A thousand stakes are rooted in the ground.
1898 R. Kipling in Daily News 7 Nov. 5/2 That which was a line has suddenly become a town on the waters.
1912 D. Crawford Thinking Black ii. 17 This caravan of ours is not by any manner of means an English four-wheeler of the gipsy sort. Really a twisting, travelling town it is.
2012 Bristol Evening Post (Nexis) 25 May 20 They [sc. ships] are mini floating towns, complete with everything you may need.
b. A colony of prairie dogs (genus Cynomys), which occupies an extensive burrow system and can comprise many family groups; (also) a colony of certain other North American ground squirrels. In early use also: †a breeding colony of penguins (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Rodentia or rodent > [noun] > family Sciuridae (squirrel) > genus Cynomys (prairie-dog) > cluster of burrows of
town1775
village1808
village burrow1893
1775 B. Penrose Acct. Last Exped. Port Egmont 31 The chief curiosity respecting the former [sc. penguins], is the manner in which they lay their eggs. This they do in collective bodies..to which we gave the name of towns.
1808 Z. M. Pike Acct. Exped. Sources Mississippi (1810) ii. 156 (note) The Wishtonwish of the Indians, prairie dogs of some travellers..reside on the prairies of Louisiana in towns or villages.
1839 F. Marryat Phantom Ship II. xviii. 131 These birds [sc. penguins] were in myriads on some parts of the island, which, from the propinquity of their nests..went by the name of towns.
1890 W. P. Lett in Big Game N. Amer. 470 Danger occasioned by badger-holes and prairie-dog towns.
1941 Jrnl. Mammalogy 22 273 The excavated soil of such diggings..marks conspicuously many of the small, open flats as squirrel towns.
1969 D. F. Costello Prairie World (1975) v. 93 I have always enjoyed a slow walk through a prairie-dog town.
2000 Nature Conservancy July 8/2 The prairie dog is..a keystone species, an animal whose ecological influence spreads far beyond the bounds of its town.
6. In certain U.S. states (or formerly, British colonies in America): a territorial division of a county forming a unit of local government; = township n. 4.In New England the town is the primary unit of local government. Each town is governed by a board of selectmen (selectman n.) who transact government business at town meetings (town meeting n.).
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > territorial jurisdiction or areas subject to > an administrative division of territory > [noun] > in U.S.A.
hundred1621
town1631
squadron1636
county1662
precinct1713
parish1772
back county1775
district1792
metropolitan district1817
society > authority > rule or government > territorial jurisdiction or areas subject to > an administrative division of territory > [noun] > in U.S.A. > consisting of a town
town1631
1631 in Rec. Mass. Bay (1853) I. 84 It is ordered, that eury towne within this pattent shal..take special care that eury person within their towne..be furnished with good & sufficient armes.
1658 in A. Perry & C. S. Brigham Early Rec. Portsmouth (Rhode Island) (1901) 361 A pearsall of Land containinge Six acres Lyinge withine the boundes of portsmouth towne.
1704 in J. H. Trumbull Public Rec. Colony of Connecticut (1859) III. 474 The said tract of land shall be an intire township and town of itself.
1787 G. Greive tr. F. J. de Chastellux Trav. N.-Amer. I. 20 What is called in America, a town or town-ship, is only a certain number of houses, dispersed over a great space, but which belong to the same incorporation, and send deputies to the general assembly of the state.
1819 Boston Centinel 31 July The crops of hay in the lower towns were in all parts heavy.
1822 Z. Hawley Jrnl. of Tour 33 The timber of these towns is, beech..and black walnut.
1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. II. xlviii. 240 The words ‘town’ and ‘township’ signify [in Illinois, etc.] a territorial division of the county, incorporated for purposes of local government.
1906 W. Churchill Coniston i. v. 49 The town of Coniston..was a tract of country about ten miles by ten, the most thickly settled portion of which was the village of Coniston, consisting of twelve houses.
1960 ABA Jrnl. Jan. 60/1 The defection of ten or fifteen Democrats, mostly from small towns.
1999 M. J. C. Vile Politics in USA (ed. 5) iv. 84 It may be the height of political ambition to become one of the selectmen of a New England town of a few hundred people.
II. Senses relating to the inhabitants of a town.
7. With singular and plural agreement. Chiefly with the. The inhabitants of a town or city considered collectively, townspeople; (also) spec. fashionable society, esp. in London (now archaic).
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > collectively
borough-folkc1200
borough-werenc1275
burgh-werec1275
cityc1300
town folkc1325
towna1382
commonity1456
nation1523
portery1565
town1582
townspeople1587
civility1598
municipality1790
citizenry1795
citizenhood1851
burgherage1858
burgherdom1884
burgherhood1885
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [noun]
higheOE
high life?a1518
towna1616
world1618
grand monde1673
society1693
beau monde1712
fine world1740
monde1765
tonc1770
high society1782
fashion1807
all the world1808
society1840
smart set1851
swelldom1854
Fifth Avenue1858
fashionabledom1859
haut monde1864
the big cheesea1910
higlif1911
haute Bohème1925
café society1937
jet set1949
beautiful people1950
c1300 All Souls (Laud) l. 148 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 424 Ase þe bischop..bi-gan is masse to singue, Al þe toun þe feondes hadde i-brouȝt on a fiȝhtyngue.
c1450 (c1440) S. Scrope tr. C. de Pisan Epist. of Othea (Longleat) (1904) 109 When nyght come and when the tovne was most in rest, than the knyghtes lepid owt of the hors.
1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) ii. l. 19 So he desirit the toune of Air to se. His child with him.
1534 G. Ferrers tr. Bk. Magna Carta f. 169 An hole towne or a countre is deceyued by such craft and subtilitie.
1582 W. Allen Briefe Hist. Glorious Martyrdom sig. Cviv All the towne loued him excedingly.
a1616 F. Beaumont Let. to B. Jonson in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Xxx4 Wit able enough to justify the town For three days past!
1665 S. Pepys Diary 21 June (1972) VI. 133 I find all the town almost going out of town.
1693 J. Dryden tr. Persius Satires i. 5 That this vast universal Fool, the Town, Shou'd cry up Labeo's Stuff, and cry me down.
1703 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion II. vi. 36 A Town so generally wicked, that it had risen upon small parties of the Kings, and kill'd, or taken them Prisoners.
1713 A. Pope Narr. Robert Norris 18 That vile Piece that's foisted upon the Town for a Dramatick Poem.
1742 A. Pope New Dunciad 284 [He], all at once let down, Stunn'd with his giddy Larum half the town.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iii. 405 His Absalom and Achitophel, the greatest satire of modern times, had amazed the town, had made its way..even into rural districts.
1895 Macmillan's Mag. Oct. 412/1 The eyes of all the town were clapped upon her.
1925 New Yorker 8 Aug. 4/2 Not since the Tango provided luscious livelihoods for many svelte youths has so devastating a dance agitated the town.
1943 Time 27 Sept. 107/1 The town knew him..as one of its best actors.
1993 R. Lowe & W. Shaw Travellers 12 Towns are usually bastards to travellers. Villages are better.
8. With singular and plural agreement. Chiefly with the. The community of a town (senses 4a and 6) in its corporate capacity; the government of a town, the town council.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > types of association, society, or organization > [noun] > corporation or body corporate
towna1382
body corporate1461
corporation1579
corporalty1603
university1607
individual1828
communitas1841
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > collectively
borough-folkc1200
borough-werenc1275
burgh-werec1275
cityc1300
town folkc1325
towna1382
commonity1456
nation1523
portery1565
town1582
townspeople1587
civility1598
municipality1790
citizenry1795
citizenhood1851
burgherage1858
burgherdom1884
burgherhood1885
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1969) Jer. Prol. l. 12 Now þe townes of jentilis weldeden þe londis of hem.
?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) ii. 333 Þe toþer day on þe morn com þe Brus Roberd, Þe toun wist it beforn, þorgh spies þat þei herd.
1465–6 Extracts Rec. in W. Chambers Charters Burgh Peebles (1872) 154 The town has consentyt that it sal be quarterit in fowr quarteris.
1540 in W. Cramond Rec. Elgin (1903) I. 47 The toun consentit to giff to John Kyntor, musicinar, ane croun of the sone for his seruice.
1555 Extracts Rec. in W. Chambers Charters Burgh Peebles (1872) 223 Euery landwart tovn..thairthrow abstractis the proffitis and change fra the said burgh to thair hevy dampnage and skaith.
1632 in J. Row & J. Row Hist. Kirk Scotl. (1842) p. xl The ministers of Perth expone and shew to the brethren that the town..had made..agreement with a schoolmaster, not acknowledging them, nor seeking their consent.
1668 in H. M. Burt First Cent. Hist. Springfield (1899) II. 98 The Town granted unto Abell Wright..ffourteen acres of Meddowish Land up the Little River.
1722 T. Yarborough Let. 28 Nov. in Early Hist. Don Navigation (1965) 77 The town of Sheffeild did then promise Sir Geo. Cooke to sende him their proposals.
1788 Dumfries Weekly Jrnl. 17 June The Town of Dumfries having resolved to erect Eight Pales at Carse-thorn, for moving of vessels there.
1890 J. K. Hosmer Anglo-Saxon Freedom 192 Each Massachusetts town sent a representative to a central assembly at Boston.
1893 Gas World 18 Mar. 287/2 The Gas Company had been selling gas to private consumers at prices lower than those fixed by the agreement between the town and the Company; and the town wanted..to set up a breach of contract as against the Gas Company.
1920 S. Lewis Main St. xxv. 416 Then, glory of glories, the town put in a White Way.
1968 Brain 91 216 The town..announced the previous day the impending visit.
2002 N.Y. Times 22 Dec. 26/2 Hundreds of cities and towns are adopting traffic-slowing devices.
9. Chiefly without article. Originally in Oxford and Cambridge: the inhabitants of a university town as distinguished from members of the university itself. Frequently in town and gown. Cf. gown n. 5.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > as opposed to university > collectively
town1577
1577 R. Holinshed Hist. Scotl. 446/1 in Chron. I The Queene..roade to Aberdine, the king being then come vnto hir, where by the Towne and Vniuersitie, they were receyued with great ioy.
a1647 P. Pette in Archaeologia (1796) 12 218 I was forced,..my graces for Bachelor of Arts being passed both in house and town, to abandon the university.
1750 in Student (1751) 2 No. 6. 226 A very singular gallant, a sort of mungrel between town and gown.
1764 Candid Remonstr. to Vice-chancellor & Members University 4 I..exerted all my Powers for reconciling and confirming a lasting Alliance between Town and Gown.
1828 Sporting Mag. 21 428 Parties of five or six, both ‘gown’ and ‘town’, were parading abreast.
1839 T. Hood Lament Toby in Hood's Own 540 Farewell to ‘Town!’ farewell to ‘Gown!’ I've quite outgrown the latter.
1861 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. I. xi. 200 I wish..to disclaim..all sympathy with town and gown rows.
1911–12 Kelly's Oxf. Directory 2/2 In 1354 a desperate Gown and Town riot began on St. Scholastica's day, February 10th, and lasted three days, during which 40 students and 60 townsmen lost their lives.
1977 Belfast Tel. 28 Feb. 3/9 Hopefully the show will be supported both by town and gown.
2005 Ho Peng Yoke Reminisc. Roving Scholar ii. 60 The most important chess event for me then was the annual Town versus Gown match.

Phrases

P1. to come to town: to make an appearance, to arrive. Formerly also: †to become established, to become common (obsolete). Cf. to come to land at land n.1 Phrases 1c.Originally with reference to sense 3b, later reinterpreted as showing sense 4.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > movement towards a thing, person, or position > reaching a point or place > reach a point or place [verb (intransitive)] > arrive
comeOE
to come to townOE
yworthOE
lend11..
lightc1225
to come anovenonc1275
wina1300
'rivec1300
repaira1325
applyc1384
to come ina1399
rede?a1400
arrivec1400
attainc1400
alightc1405
to come to handc1450
unto-comec1450
apport1578
to be along1597
to drop in1609
to come ona1635
to walk in1656
land1679
engage1686
to come along1734
to get in1863
to turn up1870
to fall in1900
to lob1916
to roll up1920
to breeze in1930
to rock up1975
the mind > attention and judgement > bad taste > lack of refinement > deprive of refinement [verb (intransitive)] > be or become vulgar
to come to town1600
vulgarize1605
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > behave badly [verb (intransitive)] > behave in ill-mannered or unrefined way > become unrefined
to come to town1600
the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [verb (intransitive)]
mode1654
to come in1680
to come up1704
to come to town1905
to hang five, ten1962
OE Menologium 8 For þy se kalend us cymeð geþincged on þam ylcan dæge us to tune.
lOE Laws: Gerefa (Corpus Cambr.) x. 454 Me mæig..on hærfeste ripan, in Agusto & Septembri & Octobri mawan, wad spittan.., ær to tune to stið winter cume.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 9160 Allse bidell birrþ beon sennd. To ȝarrkenn. & to greȝȝþenn. Onnȝæn hiss laferrd þær þær he Shall cumenn sket to tune.
a1250 (?c1200) Prov. Alfred (Maidstone) (1955) 121 (MED) Elde cummeþ to tune mid fele unkuþe costes.
a1350 in G. L. Brook Harley Lyrics (1968) 43 Lenten ys come wiþ loue to toune.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 14277 ‘Crist,’ sco said, ‘es cummen to tun.’
a1450 (?c1350) Pride of Life l. 157 in N. Davis Non-Cycle Plays & Fragm. (1970) 95 (MED) I am Hele icom to toun, Þi kinde curteyse kniȝte.
1600 Newe Metamorphosis (MS) in J. O. Halliwell & T. Wright Nares's Gloss. (1859) II. 893/2 This first was court-like, nowe 'tis come to towne; Tis comon growne with every country clowne.
1661 M. Nedham True Char. Rigid Presbyter 78 The old Saviour needs must gang Now a new one's come to town.
1683 J. Oldham Poems & Transl. 174 Fair stood his hopes, when first he came to Town, Met every where with welcomes of Renown.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. xii. viii. 174 Why here's more News of Madam Sophia come to Town.
1840 C. Giles Convent. of Drunkards (ed. 2) 13 Since this new plague has come to town, The whiskey signs are tumbling down.
1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles & St. James (new ed.) ii, in Writings I. 11 I've been quite in the way of babies to-night,..young master's come to town.
1905 Daily Chron. 11 Mar. 4/6 This Thrums sketch proved to delighted Londoners that J. M. Barrie had ‘come to town’.
1952 E. B. White Let. 6 Apr. (1976) 355 Spring is making little sashays about coming to town, but it has been a fairly unconvincing demonstration so far.
2001 High Country News 23 Apr. 15/3 Move over, SUVs, the T-Rex of all sport utility vehicles is coming to town.
P2. to go to town.
†a. = to come to town at Phrases 1. Also to go on town. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
OE Lacnunga (2001) I. xiv. 8 Gesomnige ealle þas wyrta togædere þrim nihtan ær sumor on tun ga.
OE Byrhtferð Enchiridion (Ashm.) (1995) ii. i. 82 Ver ys lengtentima, and he gæð to tune on vii idus Februarii.
1572 (a1500) Taill of Rauf Coilȝear (1882) 351 Folkis..Thankand God..Thair Lord was gane to toun.
b. slang (originally Jazz). To do something energetically, enthusiastically, or without restraint, esp. in response to a particular situation or opportunity. Frequently with on.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > act or do vigorously [verb (intransitive)]
twig1573
to go at ——1675
to go it1794
to come it1796
to lay it on thick1806
to blaze away1826
bushwhack1837
steam1842
split1844
rustle1882
to work like a demon1884
yank1888
go-at-it1904
to go somea1911
to put a jerk in it1919
to go (also do) one's (also a) dinger1923
to work (etc.) one's ass off1924
to go to town1933
to gie (or give) it laldy1974
1933 Fortune Aug. 47/1 Returning to Trombonist Brown, he can get off, swing it, sock it, smear it, or go to town (all of which mean syncopate to beat the band).
1934 Winnipeg Free Press 1 Nov. 18/3 Some of these speedy skaters will really be able to ‘go to town’ on that spacious surface in St. Paul.
1958 A. Hocking Epit. for Nurse ix. 159 The local papers naturally went to town over the murder of Sister Biggs.
1960 N. Hilliard Maori Girl ii. ix. 128 ‘It's funny as hell to see girls fight.’.. ‘They're really tough sorts, and boy! do they go to town. And swear! Punching and spitting and pulling hair.’
1972 P. M. Hubbard Whisper in Glen vii. 67 Whoever had painted the thing, he had gone to town on his picture.
2001 Contact May 38/2 The exhibitors really go to town, sparing little expense in their efforts to create colour and entertain visitors.
†P3. in town: openly, publicly. Cf. sense 3b. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
c1330 (?a1300) Sir Tristrem (1886) l. 10 (MED) Tomas telles in toun Þis auentours as þai ware.
a1475 Sidrak & Bokkus (Lansd.) (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Washington) (1965) l. 4717 (MED) He þat him-self preiseþ in towne, Wiþ an hors tord men shullen him crowne.
a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 219 Schir, lat it neuer in toune be tald.
1594 R. Holland Holie Hist. Lord & Saviour 119 Go home said Christ, sith thou art well, Of this in towne to no man tell.
P4. Chiefly poetic and literary. Coupled with tower in allusive contexts to refer to all the inhabited places of a country or region, (hence) everywhere. Chiefly in town and tower, tower and town. Cf. in field and town at field n.1 3. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > [noun]
stead1297
tower and townc1330
wonec1330
seat and soila1400
inhabitationc1400
populationa1544
c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 4732 (MED) King Arthour Hadde ywarnist toun and tour.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 12983 Al þis werld, bath tur and tun.
c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Merchant's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 928 Al myn heritage, toun and tour I yeue it yow.
a1425 (?c1350) Ywain & Gawain (1964) l. 1576 (MED) Of þaire dedes was grete renown To and fra in towre and towne.
?1548 Pathose sig. A.iiv And towne and towre To lowt and lowre At my comaundement.
1621 J. Taylor Praise of Beggery sig. B2 Let Townes and Towres with batt'ry be o're-turn'd.
1771 T. Percy Hermit of Warkworth iii. 33 Sometimes a Minstrel's garb he wears, With pipes so sweet and shrill; And wends to every tower and town; O'er every dale and hill.
1813 W. Scott Bridal of Triermain ii. xvi. 78 Carlisle town and tower.
1864 Ld. Tennyson Flower in Enoch Arden, etc. 171 Thieves..Sow'd it far and wide By every town and tower.
1876 W. G. Palgrave Dutch Guiana vii. 260 Town and tower lessen and disappear behind the nearer river-margin of plantation and tree.
1945 J. Betjeman New Bats in Old Belfries 1 A reach away the breach is made By dive and shout That circles out To Henley Tower and Town.
P5. colloquial. man (also woman, etc.) about town and variants: a person who mingles in the pursuits or society of the town; spec. one who is frequently seen at fashionable social occasions; a member of fashionable society; a socialite. Now frequently hyphenated. Cf. girl about town at girl n. Phrases 2a, about prep.1 7b.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [noun] > member of > male
gallant1388
wamfler15..
rutter1506
younkera1522
fine gentleman1575
cavalier1589
whisker1595
jinglespur1604
bravery1616
brisk1621
chevalier1630
man about town1647
man of mode1676
man of distinction1699
sprag1707
sparky1756
blood1763
swell1786
Corinthian1819
galliard1828
mondain1833
toff1851
flâneur1854
Johnny1883
silver-tail1898
knut1911
lounge lizard1918
old buster1919
Hooray Henry1959
society > leisure > social event > [noun] > participant
man (also woman, etc.) about town1734
racketer1753
social butterfly1837
socialite1909
socializer1941
1647 J. Howell New Vol. of Lett. 196 I was a youth about the town when he undertook that expedition.
1678 T. D'Urfey Fool turn'd Critick iv. ii. 34 Were I not favourable, many a poor Fellow about Town would be undone.
1734 in 15th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS App. vi. 146 in Parl. Papers 1897 (C. 8551) LI. 1 Though being what is called an idle man about Town, I generally read all that is writ on both sides.
1769 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 6 Sept. (1932) (modernized text) VI. 2892 There are now two sorts of young fellows about Town, who call themselves Bucks and Bloods.
1843 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) xxvi. 317 He was quite the man-about-town of the conversation.
1847 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848) x. 83 A perfect and celebrated ‘blood’, or dandy about town.
1889 W. Roberts Hist. Eng. Bookselling 121 Wits, men-about-town, and fashionable notabilities.
1907 Westm. Gaz. 9 Apr. 2/1 The young raff about town; his respectable M.P. father.
1979 ‘S. Kemp’ Goodbye, Pussy xii. 160 Zoë had been an ‘actress’. Actress, model, woman-about-town.
1994 H. Holland Born in Soweto vi. 107 My father was a man-about-town, very well known in Soweto in the fifties.
P6. colloquial.
†a. man of the town: a dissolute or licentious man; a rake. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > [noun] > person > male
franion1571
Corinthian1575
colt1584
libertine1584
tit1601
night-sneaker1611
highboy1667
man of the town1671
town bull1709
gay deceiver1710
Lothario1756
playboy1829
gay dog1847
girlie-man1897
lizard1935
player1968
mack daddy1991
1671 J. Dryden Evening's Love iv. 60 As I am a Gentleman, a man of the Town, one who wears good Cloathes, Eates, Drinks, and Wenches abundantly.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Man o' th' Town, a Lew'd Spark, or very Debaushe.
a1704 T. Brown Dialogues of Dead in 4th Vol. Wks. (1720) 142 I have been a Man of the Town..and admitted into the Family of the Rakehellonians.
1765 G. A. Stevens Celebrated Lect. on Heads (new ed.) 14 This is a man of the town, or a blood; and this is a woman of the town or a —— but by what other title the lady chuses to be called, we are not entitled to mention.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Man of the town, a rake, a debauchee.
1828 L. Hunt Ld. Byron & Some Contemp. 91 If he could have got rid of this [affectation] and his title, he would have talked like a man; not like a mere man of the town, or a great spoilt schoolboy.
b. euphemistic. woman (also lady) of the town: a prostitute. Cf. girl of (the) town at girl n. Phrases 2b, town woman n. at Compounds 1b. Now archaic.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute
meretrixOE
whoreOE
soiled dovea1250
common womanc1330
putec1384
bordel womanc1405
putaina1425
brothelc1450
harlot?a1475
public womanc1510
naughty pack?1529
draba1533
cat1535
strange woman1535
stew1552
causey-paikera1555
putanie?1566
drivelling1570
twigger1573
punka1575
hackney1579
customer1583
commodity1591
streetwalker1591
traffic1591
trug1591
hackster1592
polecat1593
stale1593
mermaid1595
medlar1597
occupant1598
Paphian1598
Winchester goose1598
pagan1600
hell-moth1602
aunt1604
moll1604
prostitution1605
community1606
miss1606
night-worm1606
bat1607
croshabell1607
prostitute1607
pug1607
venturer1607
nag1608
curtal1611
jumbler1611
land-frigate1611
walk-street1611
doll-common1612
turn-up1612
barber's chaira1616
commonera1616
public commonera1616
trader1615
venturea1616
stewpot1616
tweak1617
carry-knave1623
prostibule1623
fling-dusta1625
mar-taila1625
night-shadea1625
waistcoateera1625
night trader1630
coolera1632
meretrician1631
painted ladya1637
treadle1638
buttock1641
night-walker1648
mob?1650
lady (also girl, etc.) of the game1651
lady of pleasure1652
trugmullion1654
fallen woman1659
girlc1662
high-flyer1663
fireship1665
quaedama1670
small girl1671
visor-mask1672
vizard-mask1672
bulker1673
marmalade-madam1674
town miss1675
town woman1675
lady of the night1677
mawks1677
fling-stink1679
Whetstone whore1684
man-leech1687
nocturnal1693
hack1699
strum1699
fille de joie1705
market-dame1706
screw1725
girl of (the) town1733
Cytherean1751
street girl1764
monnisher1765
lady of easy virtue1766
woman (also lady) of the town1766
kennel-nymph1771
chicken1782
stargazer1785
loose fish1809
receiver general1811
Cyprian1819
mollya1822
dolly-mop1834
hooker1845
charver1846
tail1846
horse-breaker1861
professional1862
flagger1865
cocodette1867
cocotte1867
queen's woman1871
common prostitute1875
joro1884
geisha1887
horizontal1888
flossy1893
moth1896
girl of the pavement1900
pross1902
prossie1902
pusher1902
split-arse mechanic1903
broad1914
shawl1922
bum1923
quiff1923
hustler1924
lady of the evening1924
prostie1926
working girl1928
prostisciutto1930
maggie1932
brass1934
brass nail1934
mud kicker1934
scupper1935
model1936
poule de luxe1937
pro1937
chromo1941
Tom1941
pan-pan1949
twopenny upright1958
scrubber1959
slack1959
yum-yum girl1960
Suzie Wong1962
mattress1964
jamette1965
ho1966
sex worker1971
pavement princess1976
parlour girl1979
crack whore1990
1673 J. Arrowsmith Reformation iv. ii. 56 He talks o're all the women of the town..and call'd them all by their names as freely as if he had been Pimp to all the company.
1680 Revenge; or, Match in Newgate i. ii. 8 A Whore! Oh call her a Miss, a Ladie of the Town, a Beautie of delight, or any thing. Whore! 'tis a nauseous name, and out of fashion now to call things by their right names.
1765 G. A. Stevens Celebrated Lect. on Heads (new ed.) 11 Women of the town may be allowed the use of paint, because the dexterity of their profession, like that of pirates, consists in fighting under false colours.
1766 O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield II. i. 14 The lady was only a woman of the town.
1873 G. H. Lewes Diary 1 Jan. in ‘G. Eliot’ Lett. (1956) V. 357 Trollope came to lunch. Told me of his trouble with Harry wanting to marry a woman of the town.
1886 Lantern (New Orleans) 20 Oct. 2/2 Orders were issued to the police to remove all women-of-the-town.
1940 D. W. Brogna France under Republic iii. 192 The trail of scandal led straight from the dingy offices and hotels of the Paris of confidence tricksters and ladies of the town, to the Élysée.
1982 C. Castle Folies Bergère i. 37 At the back of the stalls..the notorious ‘ladies of the town’..plied their trade.
P7. upon (also on) the town.
a. Making a living by prostitution or in some other disreputable way. Frequently in to come upon the town: to enter into a life of prostitution. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > engaged in prostitution [phrase]
upon the town1712
on (or upon) the loose1749
on the turf1860
on the game1898
on the bash1936
on the knock1969
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > by or in manner of theft [phrase] > engaged in theft
on the game1839
upon (also on) the town1842
at or on the creep1928
on the knock-off1936
1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 266. ⁋2 This Creature is what they call newly come upon the Town.
1728 J. Gay Beggar's Opera ii. iv. 25 I ha'nt been so long upon the Town.
1731 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 15/1 So the Child is placed upon the Parish, and the Woman upon the Town.
1842 P. Egan Capt. Macheath iii. 32 Jack long was on the town, a teazer;..Could turn his ‘fives’ to anything, Nap a reader, or filch a ring.
1846 ‘Lord Chief Baron’ Swell's Night Guide (new ed.) 103 This lady..has been on the town about fifteen months,..having a good deal of custom in the mercantile way.
1883 Med. Rec. (N.Y.) 24 Mar. 329/1 The young girls who come upon the town and fall to the lot of the so-called better classes.
1973 P. O'Brian HMS Surprise iv. 70 I shall have no hugger-mugger correspondence in my house; there has been enough of that, with your cousin going into keeping, or coming upon the town, or whatever you like to call it in your modern flash way of speaking.
1998 R. Trumbach Sex & Gender Revol. I. v. 148 Another girl was debauched by a captain and then went on the town, wandering in Fleet Street, picking up men.
b. In receipt of parish or town relief; so as to be dependent on charity or state support. Esp. in to come (also go, fall, be flung, etc.) upon the town. Cf. on (also upon) the parish at parish n. Phrases. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > poverty > in impoverished state [phrase] > in receipt of relief
on (also upon) the parisha1637
in collection1702
upon (also on) the town1783
the mind > possession > poverty > be poor [verb (intransitive)] > receive poor relief
to live on the alms-basket1598
to go (also come, fall, be sent, etc.) on the parisha1637
to take collection1670
to come (also go, fall, be flung, etc.) upon the town1836
1783 J. Rayner Cases at Large conc. Tithes II. 528 Such poor as might thereafter fall upon the town by reason of persons inhabiting it.
1836 C. G. Finney Serm. Important Subj. vii. 170 They..think they had much better attend to their worldly business, lest their families should come upon the town.
1890 J. G. Austin Dr. LeBaron & his Daughter xxi. 197 ‘Why did you not let me know of your condition before it came to this?’.. ‘I could not pay you, Doctor, and I did not want to come upon the town.’
1893 F. H. Underwood Quabbin x. 82 When friendless and destitute persons, legally entitled to support, were, in common parlance, ‘flung upon the town’, the keeper of the poor-farm provided for them in the house he occupied.
1936 R. E. Desvernine Democratic Despotism xii. 224 The old horror of living on the town seems to have disappeared from the minds of many people.
1999 Wisconsin Mag. Hist. 82 266/1 Pride and independence were etched deep into local consciousness. To ‘go on the town’ was a disgrace.
c. Participating in the fashionable pursuits of a city or town; moving in fashionable society. Frequently in to come upon the town: to enter into fashionable society. Now historical and rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > be in fashionable society [verb (intransitive)]
upon the town1713
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [adverb] > in fashionable society
upon (also on) the town1713
1713 A. Pope Let. in Wks. (1822) VII. 265 An author, who is once come upon the town, is enjoyed without being thanked for the pleasure.
1819 Metropolis (ed. 2) II. 167 We have a man looked up to to-day..in the Gazette in three months, and on the town again, brighter than ever.
1854 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes I. x. 101 Five-and-twenty years ago the young Earl of Kew came upon the town, which speedily rang with the feats of his Lordship.
1944 G. Heyer Friday's Child i. 13 Dash it, a man can't be on the Town without kicking up a lark or so every now and then!
P8. colloquial. (out) on the town: enjoying the nightlife of a city or town. Frequently in a night on the town.
ΚΠ
1860 Illustr. Times 25 Feb. 1/3 Vice is amply catered for in the publicans' houses already, as a night on the town may show to any philosophical inquirer.
1939 Washington Post 30 Apr. vi. 1/8 A night on the town for two will run to $150 or better.
1948 A. J. Hanna & K. A. Hanna Lake Okeechobee xxvii. 330 After appointing certain of their party to stay sober.., they went out on the town.
1981 West Lancs. Evening Gaz. 18 July 8/4 A night on the town turned sour when a 22 year-old man hit a glass collector in the face with a beer stein.
1993 Independent on Sunday 4 Apr. 22/5 George VI was outraged his son-in-law was on the town with a showgirl.
2006 Philadelphia May 229/1 A crowded, cacophonous mix of special-occasioners out on the town.
P9.
town and country planning n. chiefly British the planning and regulation of the development of land; cf. town planning n.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town and country > [noun] > planning of
town and country planning1915
1915 Brit. Architect 8 Jan. 16/2 The great opportunity of a comprehensive plan, including every phase of town and country planning, housing, planning, sanitation, transport, industry, and agriculture.
1972 Whitaker's Almanack 1177/2 The Town and Country Planning Act 1971 (consolidating earlier Acts) contains very far-reaching provisions affecting the liberty of an owner of land to develop and use it as he will.
2002 Cheshire Life Aug. 120/3 Abercrombie was the pioneer of town and country planning and the first person to advocate the establishing of Green Belts round built-up areas.
P10. to beat up the town for recruits: see beat v.1 27. the only game in town: see game n. Phrases 18. new kid in town: see new kid n. to paint the town (red): see paint v.1 Phrases 1. to strike town: see strike v. 68b. talk of the town: see talk n. 4.

Compounds

(Chiefly in sense 4.)
C1. Compounds with town.
a.
(a) General attributive.
(i) With the sense ‘of, relating to, or characteristic of the town (as distinct from some other place, esp. the countryside); that lives in or frequents towns or the town; urban’. [With quot. a1425 compare quot. OE at townly adj. and the discussion at that entry.]
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [adjective]
towna1425
townishc1425
urbane1533
townslike1574
urban1619
townly1822
towny1823
a1425 Medulla Gram. (Stonyhurst) f. 15v Comedia, a toun song. Comedus, writer of toun song.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. clx The towne wiues, whan they go to here Masse, cary with them bokes of Latin prayers.
1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie Pref. 6 One of the towne ministers that sawe in what manner the people were bent for the reuocation of Caluin.
1632 R. Brome Northern Lasse i. i. sig. B [She] has beene the Towne widow these three yeares.
1673 Char. Coffee-house (title page) The Symptomes of a Town-wit.
1693 J. Dunton Athenian Merc. 14 Nov. The ridiculous Folly of our Town-Sparks who make an Oath their Argument.
1711 J. Swift Examiner 15 Feb. Lewdness and Intemperance are not of so bad Consequences in a Town Rake as a Divine.
1753 World No. 3. ⁋2 According to the town-acceptation of the term.
1795 W. Felton Treat. Carriages II. 49 A neat ornamented, or town coach.
1848 J. S. Mill Princ. Polit. Econ. I. Prel. Rem. 9 These [agricultural communities of ancient Europe]..were mostly small town-communities.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xiv. 493 The difference..between a town divine and a country divine.
1867 H. Latham Black & White 100 Houses which look like the town-residences of well-to-do gentry.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. II. 842 It is safer to take a lower standard for the average town inhabitant.
1918 W. Cather My Ántonia ii. ix. 231 The Vannis' tent brought the town boys and the country girls together on neutral ground.
1940 F. Sargeson Man & Wife (1944) 10 She was letting them have milk at half the town price.
1995 Musical Times 136 14/2 It is the artist's responsibility to defend the pastoral tradition against ephemeral town fashions.
(ii) With the sense ‘of or belonging to a particular town’.
town armoury n.
ΚΠ
a1616 W. Shakespeare Taming of Shrew (1623) iii. ii. 46 An olde rusty sword tane out of the Towne Armory . View more context for this quotation
?1790 N. Wyndham Trav. through Europe II. 49 A convent of Minims, which now serves for the town armoury.
1988 Times 31 Oct. 10/7 The 90-minute broadcast..provoked riots in places after local mayors refused to open town armouries.
town bell n.
ΚΠ
1484 W. Cely Let. 10 Feb. in Cely Lett. (1975) 196 To be redy yn harnesse as sone as the towne bell rynggyth.
1680 P. Rycaut Mem. cont. Hist. Turks 81 in Hist. Turkish Empire Out of the Town Bells he founded his Artillery.
1877 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People I. 298 Its citizens mustered at the call of the town-bell at Saint Paul's.
1997 Sunday Times 26 Oct. (Sport section) 8/2 Local passions are invoked by the peal of the town bells.
town bridge n.
ΚΠ
c1400 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (BL Add.) (1887) l. 11595 (MED) Tun brugge [c1325 Calig. Þe tu brugge hii drowe vp & þe ȝates made anon].
1749 in H. R. McIlwaine Jrnls. House Burgesses Virginia (1909) 383 The Bounds of the Corporation of that Borough may be established, to run from the Town Bridge a West North-west Course, as far as the Head of Boush's Creek.
1860 F. Kernan Rep. Court of Appeals N.-Y. 2 65 Viewing it as a town bridge, as distinguished from a county bridge, the board of supervisors had no authority to act.
2005 L. Herrin House of Deaf 171 He..walked the distance between the three town bridges.
town clock n.
ΚΠ
1466 in J. T. Gilbert Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) I. 323 (MED) William Meyler, cutteler, keper of the towne clok.
1779 Mirror No. 41. ⁋1 He..had been regulating his watch by our town-clock.
1893 ‘Q’ Delectable Duchy 171 The town clock had struck four when I hurried back.
2001 National Post (Canada) 9 Apr. c7/1 The gentleman who climbs through its offices each week to adjust the town clock in the upstairs tower.
town close n. [close n.1]
ΚΠ
1809 Monthly Mag. Sept. 184/2 Her Highness marched toward the city, near which, in the town-close, Gurgunt was prepared with a complimentary speech.
2004 C. Barringer in C. Rawcliffe et al. Norwich since 1550 i. 1 This expansion took in the Town Close, between the Norwich and Ipswich roads.
town dike n. [compare earlier town ditch n. and also town moat n.]
ΚΠ
1562 J. Shute tr. A. Cambini in Two Comm. Turcks i. f. 37 He..conueyed his people to ye very bancke of the towne dyke, and then planted his batteries.
1801 Farmer's Mag. Jan. 10 The horses, cattle, sheep, and swine..are not to be suffered to go loose within town-dikes.
1982 Rotarian Jan. 42/2 Ice jams and freezing water..caused the waters to crest over the borders of the town dikes, spilling into the streets.
town drummer n.
ΚΠ
1608 E. Grimeston tr. J. F. Le Petit Gen. Hist. Netherlands ix. 487 About noone Dierick Iohnson Brewer, caused the towne drummer to sound his drumme round about the towne.
1872 C. Gibbon For King I. i. 2 Bauldy Dodholm, the town-drummer, at their head.
2011 J. Clark Connecticut's Fife & Drum Trad. i. 17 The town drummer would announce public events, attracting crowds to listen to public proclamations.
town field n.
ΚΠ
1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng xx. f. xxxviv The townfelde called the southe felde on the southe.
1689 Thoughts Gentlemen's Undertaking at York 16 The Chimney-man that is Irresistable in his Office, is Resistable if he gather the Corn in the Town-fields.
2004 T. Corson Secret Life Lobsters (2005) ii. iv. 60 The road sloped down to the town field, the grass dry and golden in the late-afternoon sun.
town green n.
ΚΠ
1596 T. Nashe Haue with you to Saffron-Walden To Rdr. sig. Dv Yet you shall see me in two or three leaues hence, crie Heigh for our towne greene.
1641 in Quarter Sessions Rec. (N. Riding Rec. Soc.) (1886) IV. 212 A yeoman presented for an encroachment on the towne-greene by building a barn to the damage of the inhabitants.
1832 Schoolmaster & Edinb. Weekly Mag. 8 Dec. 296/2 The peasants wrestled and sported on the town green, and told tales of an evening.
2009 T. M. Marshall Art Museums Plus 256 The library joins a fine assembly of public buildings that ring the central town green.
town jail n.
ΚΠ
1463 in Manners & Househ. Expenses Eng. (1841) 180 (MED) Forster the gaylor of the town ȝayle of Hepesweche howethe me be an hoblygasyon, cc marke.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. x. 454 The..chiefe Iustice, would haue had me along with him to the Town Iayle.
a1784 G. A. Stevens Let. in T. Wilkinson Mem. (1790) IV. 196 My existence now cannot properly be called living.., having since February 13, been confined in this town gaol for a London debt.
1996 L. Al-Hafidh et al. Europe: Rough Guide (ed. 3) ii. vi. 228 If the Raeapteek leaves you underwhelmed, head for the former Town Jail..which now houses the Town Hall Museum.
town kirk n. chiefly Scottish
ΚΠ
c1275 ( Will of Thurstan (Sawyer 1531) in D. Whitelock Anglo-Saxon Wills (1930) 80 Habbe he þat [lond] fre his day and his wiues, and after here bothere day into þe tunkirke & þo men fre.
1651 Severall Proc. Parl. No. 100 They plaid hard against our men that were in the steeple of the Town Kirk.
1788 J. Skinner Eccl. Hist. Scotl. II. xxxiv. 83 Being hardy enough to preach publicly in the town-kirk of Perth.
1909 Illustr. London News 6 Mar. 354/3 The huge eighteenth-century barn which did duty for the town kirk.
2012 Scotsman (Nexis) 18 June Hundreds of school children..will stand on the steps of the town kirk to watch the coronation.
† town mead n. [mead n.2] Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
a1632 L. Hutten Diss. Antiq. Oxf. in C. Plummer Elizabethan Oxf. (1887) 85 Ch. Ch. Meadow..in former tymes, was two, the farther part, next unto Isis, belonging unto the Citty of Oxford, and called the Towne Meade.
1866 Essex Standard 20 June 2/7 Gorsuch..was crossing the line at the spot named, intending to come by the footpath through the town meads to the Chequers Inn.
town mill n.
ΚΠ
1463–5 Rolls of Parl.: Edward IV (Electronic ed.) Parl. Apr. 1463 §17. m. 5 To ordeyn..for the grete disceit daily doon..in milles called gygmylles and toune milles, [etc.].
1683 J. Bulteel tr. F. E. de Mézeray Gen. Chronol. Hist. France iii. 819 He comes again before Rouen, and endeavoured to turn the little Rivers of Robec and Aubete another way, on which the Town Mills were placed.
1807 Caledonian Mercury 8 June An old woman was found drowned in the aqueduct, a little above the town mills.
2003 South Bend (Indiana) Tribune (Nexis) 16 Feb. c1 They wanted to find flour sacks from the old town mill.
town moat n.
ΚΠ
1602 tr. W. C. Copie Let. from Campe before Graue 2 His Excellencie hath made his approch on the East-side, close to the Towne mote.
1870 H. Wright Nuremberg 9 This man is said to have leapt once with his horse from the Castle wall over the town moat.
2010 A. A. Tulchin That Men would praise Lord iii. 61 A mill at the Madeleine Gate, to the west of the town, was destroyed, taking with it the gate and the bridge over the town moat.
town moor n.
ΚΠ
1593 in R. Renwick Extracts Rec. Royal Burgh of Lanark (1893) 110 That the toun muir be delt amang the burgessis.
1649 W. Grey Chorographia 8 The bounds of the Towne upon the West the Lands belonging to the Priour of Tinemouth; On the North, the Towne Moore.
1822 J. Galt Provost xlvi. 347 A considerable portion of the town moor.
1998 M. Waites Little Triggers (1999) xv. 117 Over the town moor he went, breath tearing at his chest, legs close to buckling.
town moot n. [ < town n. + moot n.1; compare earlier town meeting n. and also township moot n. at township n. Compounds 3] historical
ΚΠ
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People ii. §6. 90 The burgesses gathered in town-mote when the bell swung out from S. Paul's.
1894 Times 12 Dec. 6 An institution [sc. the parish council], created by Act of Parliament on March 5, 1894, but described..as the lineal descendant of the town mote which existed 800 years ago.
2006 Derby Evening Tel. (Nexis) 28 Mar. 8 He was elected annually by the town moot.
town official n.
ΚΠ
1837 G. Bourne Slavery Illustr. ii. 54 The dignified town official,..brandishing a fearful scourge, instantly commenced his patriotic labors.
1925 Amer. Mercury July 346/2 The unused tracks remained an obstruction in the street and a testimony to the faint-heartedness, incompetency or personal interests of the town officials.
2014 Gloucestershire Echo (Nexis) 7 Jan. 8 For a variety of reasons, town officials from Cheltenham will not be attending the Games.
town piper n.
ΚΠ
1671 R. Baxter Divine Appointment of Lords Day Proved x. 117 One of my Fathers own Tenants was the Town Piper, hired by the Year.
1727 in R. Renwick Extracts Rec. Stirling (1889) II. 200 The councill appoints Alexander Glass, pyper at St. Ninians, to be town piper of this burgh.
2005 Jrnl. Musicol. 22 213 Johann Sebastian registers ‘a particular..inclination for music’ which led to his receiving a formal training as town piper.
town pump n.
ΚΠ
1681 in Minutes & Accts. Feoffees Peterborough (MSS) 202 Paid Robert Willoes for mending ye Town pump.
1848 N. Hawthorne in Metrop. Mag. Dec. 381 The millmen resolved to bestow public honors on Dominicus Pike, only hesitating whether to tar and feather him, ride him on a rail, or refresh him with an ablution at the town pump.
2010 J. Leslie et al. Hayden ii. 24 Businesses and townspeople who did not have their own wells got their water from the town pump.
town seal n.
ΚΠ
?1542 H. Brinkelow Complaynt Roderyck Mors xxii. sig. F3v And make a prouyso, that no cloth be made, but in cyteys and great townys, and the town seale to be vpon euery cloth.
1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie Pref. 9 By common consent of their whole Senate, & that vnder their towne seale.
1737 tr. K. L. von Pöllnitz Amusemens de Spa I. 159 Pay something extraordinary to the Woman that corks 'em and puts the Town-Seal to 'em.
2012 J. Davis Medieval Market Morality iii. 390 All measures of the town were approved and sealed with the town seal.
town stocks n.
ΚΠ
1592 T. Nashe Strange Newes sig. D He hath borne office in Walden aboue twenty yere since (hoc est had the keeping of the Towne stocke, alias the stocks) Ergo he is no Rope-maker.]
1821 W. Scott Kenilworth I. ii. 41 To get your legs made acquainted with the town-stocks.
2012 M. Owen Golden Falcon ii. xv. 122 We yanked the grocer along to the town stocks and clapped him in them.
† town swineherd n. [compare earlier town herd n.2] Obsolete
ΚΠ
1825 W. Scott Betrothed vii, in Tales Crusaders I. 128 He blows like a town swineherd.
1882 J. Croston Nooks & Corners Lancs. & Cheshire v. 199 The common, on which the townsmen had the right to pasture their pigs, and where the town swine-herd daily attended to his porcine charge.
town watch n.
ΚΠ
1578 J. Rolland Seuin Seages 73 Gif I be heir now with the toun watche found.
c1600 D. Moysie Mem. Affairs Scotl. (1830) 4 The toun watche, perceaving ane or twa calliueris to be caried in to the said castell, stoppit thame.
1773 T. Leland Hist. Ireland III. v. iii. 110 They found him in the hands of the town watch.
1999 J. L. Singman Daily Life in Medieval Europe vii. 208 The gates and mural towers of Paris probably served as stations for the town watch.
town wharf n.
ΚΠ
1531 in J. Gairdner Lett. & Papers Henry VIII (1880) V. 184 Caryng of rubys out of the towne to the towne wharffis.
1712 Projector of Mine-adventure Detected 101 A Grant of the Liberty to lay down their Goods on the Town Wharf, paying five Pounds a Year only.
1989 J. Casey Spartina (1990) 26 He'd pop her into Great Salt Pond at high water and chug past the rest of the fleet to the town wharf.
(b) Objective.
town builder n.
ΚΠ
1716 A. Hill Ess. for Dec. iii. 33 This Objection will no longer have Force, if we put our Town Builders in Mind of a way to procure Artificial Stonework, as cheap as their Bricks.
1859 S. R. Stumbo Let. 11 Jan. in L. R. Hafen Colorado Gold Rush (1941) 214 The reports you see in the papers..are put in circulation by town builders for speculative purposes.
2012 T. Matson Earth Ponds (ed. 3) i. 43/2 Ancient Chinese town builders commenced work with the excavation of a deep moat around the site.
town-destroying adj.
ΚΠ
1818 E. Elliott Night iv. vii. 141 His town-destroying brand Destruction o'er th' horizon waves no more.
1873 B. Taylor tr. J. W. von Goethe Faust II. iii. 243 Shall I henceforth be The dream and terror of those town-destroying ones?
2010 R. Thurman Roadkill 300 A town-destroying tornado.
town-frequenting adj.
ΚΠ
1822 J. Taaffe Comment Divine Comedy I. 418 Town-frequenting nobility begin to leave the provinces desolate.
1895 Athenæum 27 Apr. 530/2 The Danes were a town-frequenting people.
1915 C. A. Ealand Insects & Man iii. 128 It is a rural rather than a town-frequenting insect.
town-going n. and adj.
ΚΠ
a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) ii. f. 55v Frugalitie in diet was priuately misliked: Towne going to good cheare openly vsed.
1865 J. H. Friswell Splendid Fortune III. i. 15 The long train of town-going vehicles.
1926 Amer. Mercury Apr. 458/1 I would..watch the town-going farmers pass.
2013 R. Salisbury So Far, so Good xviii. 130 He interrupted his farm work, changed to his town-going clothes, and drove four miles to pick me up.
† town-keeping adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1896 A. Lang in H. Peek Poetry of Sport (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) 11 The Greeks, at least in Attica, became a nation of citizens and town-keeping men.
1899 Daily News 23 May 4/6 For town-keeping people the cart-horse parade was one of the prettiest sights of the day.
town-loving adj.
ΚΠ
1826 London Mag. Aug. 495 She chaperoned her fair town-loving daughters.
1900 F. W. Maitland Let. 18 Feb. (1965) 211 The Spaniard of the middle class is a town-loving animal.
1941 Mind 50 396 A statement which no purely town-born, town-bred, town-loving person can..verify.
2005 Western Mail (Nexis) 29 Nov. 4 The tree sparrow, a country cousin of our familiar town-loving house sparrow, is on the brink of extinction.
(c) Instrumental.
town-dotted adj.
ΚΠ
1875 J. Goddard Golden Journey 69 Far to the north stretched out a great wide plain, Town-dotted.
1880 J. Payne New Poems 28 I hover o'er the haunts of men, Above the white town-dotted coasts.
1995 R. T. T. Forman Land Mosaics i. 3 Rich primeval rainforest awaits on one side, and town-dotted farmland on the other.
town-flanked adj. rare
ΚΠ
1905 Daily News 14 Jan. 4 Painter of sea and shore and town-flanked river.
town-girdled adj. now rare
ΚΠ
1812 W. Tennant Anster Fair iii. xxiv. 60 Fife's town-girdled shire.
1911 Pacific Coast Jrnl. Homoeopathy Feb. 68 There Before my gaze the wondrous beauty lies Of hill, and dale, town-girdled Bay, and Gate.
town-sick adj.
ΚΠ
1704 W. Darrell Gentleman Instructed i. 4 You run riot on a false Conjecture. I am not Heart-Sick, but Town-Sick.
1840 T. A. Trollope Summer in Brittany I. 71 As enchanting a cottage..as town-sick mortal ever dreamed of.
1973 Times 29 Dec. 20/6 (advt.) Home wanted for ‘town sick’ affectionate..Afghan dog.
town-stained adj.
ΚΠ
1875 Day of Rest 28 Aug. 552/1 Fair as a pearl, and undefiled, No town-stained spoil art thou, But pure as is the little child, Whose fellowship is with the wild.
1902 N. Chesson Aquamarines 41 His are the town-stained plane trees, wherein the wind makes moan.
1977 K. Darlington Labrador Retriever 51 This may be necessary several days before if the dog is really town-stained and grubby.
(d) Locative and similative.
town-bred adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [adjective] > town-bred
town-born1578
town-bred1619
1619 J. T. Hunting of Pox sig. A4v To feast him with a towne-bred Goose, if he would please to stay.
1670 J. Eachard Grounds Contempt of Clergy 52 A Town-bred, or Countrey-bred Similitude, it is worth nothing.
1795 F. Reynolds Rage i. ii. 11 If Lady Sarah Savage be a picture of town-bred women of fashion, let me remain a plain simple rustic all my life.
1869 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 396 Smart, active fellows, but thoroughly town-bred.
1996 Guardian 18 Mar. ii. 4/1 The sort of proud-hearted, scar-nosed, frayed-eared, town-bred tom who does not give his friendship or trust lightly.
town-cured adj. now rare
ΚΠ
1827 Daily National Intelligencer (Washington) 26 May Prime town-cured Bacon.
1904 Highroad i. 12 They brought their crops and then their pork to him in exchange for coffee and tea and sugar, dry goods and ‘town-cured’ hams.
town-dark adj.
ΚΠ
1918 D. H. Lawrence New Poems 26 Gay birds of the town-dark sea.
1960 R. Williams Border Country 10 It was dark..town dark.
town-imprisoned adj. now rare
ΚΠ
1832 London Lit. Gaz. 15 Dec. 785/1 Even the poor town-imprisoned artisan works at his loom in sight of pots of flowers, placed on the window-sill.
1916 R. U. Johnson Poems of War & Peace 410 Strife, envy, the luxurious ills Men, town-imprisoned, learn to love.
town-killed adj.
ΚΠ
1837 Brighton Patriot & South of Eng. Free Press 26 Dec. 4/6 The supply of town-killed meat is smaller than usual at this time.
2001 Evening Standard (Nexis) 3 Dec. 5 Smithfield's has had a refurbishment in recent years and is still the capital's main market for town-killed (TK) meat.
† town-looking adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1843 ‘B. Truck’ Man-o'-war's-man xxiv. 414 Whar we could see there was a bit o' a town-looking place.
1849 J. Forbes Physician's Holiday (1850) v. 47 Waldshut is a neater and more town-looking place than we had yet passed through.
town-pent adj.
ΚΠ
a1657 G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Henry V cli, in Poems (1878) IV. 138 The Towne-pent Rutters, willingly enlarge Their Quarters.
1849 Daily News 12 Apr. 6/4 A careful Queen had devoted Victoria Park for the benefit of her town-pent lieges.
1982 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Nov. 1293/5 There are still town-pent reviewers who, when they come across a contemporary poem which mentions, say, an elder-tree, imagine that makes the poem ‘irrelevant’.
town-tied adj.
ΚΠ
1845 E. A. Poe in Broadway Jrnl. 13 Sept. 155 We poor town-tied denizens..can revel in scenes which we may never be able to visit.
1864 London Society Oct. 344 (heading) Alone and town-tied.
2002 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 27 Sept. 28 The western reaches of the southern Midlands were effectively out of bounds to the town-tied business type.
town-trained adj.
ΚΠ
1863 S. T. Hall Days in Derbyshire xx. 192 A school-house in which the town-trained schoolmaster seemed scarcely at home.
1962 S. E. Finer Man on Horseback vii. 114 The Parliament was, to them, a façade for a selfish town-trained oligarchy.
b.
town adjutant n. Military (now historical) (in a garrison town or fortress) an officer who acts as an aide to the town major (Town Major n. 1).
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > leader or commander > officer according to function > [noun] > subordinate garrison officers
fort-major1715
town adjutant1727
fort-adjutant1876
1727 A. Boyer Polit. State Great Brit. Aug. 174 William Waynes, Gent. Town Adjutant, William Cooper, Surgeon; and Jonahan Hall, Clerk, Chaplain to the said Town and Garrison of Berwick upon Tweed.
1801 Brit. Mil. Libr. II. (at cited word) The Town-Adjutant is an assistant to the Town-Major.
2002 Yorks. Post (Nexis) 26 Mar. The King's Chapel is packed with colonial memorials to British town adjutants, deputy commissioner generals and assistant barrackmasters.
town administrator n. an official responsible for managing the administrative affairs of a town; spec. (chiefly U.S.) the chief administrative and executive officer of a town or other small municipality; = town manager n.
ΚΠ
1846 Polit. Dict. II. 543/2 The [Scottish] town administrators were compelled by the voice of public opinion to become more liberal in their dispensations, while the managers of the country parishes..kept down the allowances.
1871 Evening Bull. (San Francisco) 13 Feb. The Commissioners conclude that..the system should contain the following features... Town clerk to be town administrator, and the justice to be coroner.
1920 Times of India 3 Mar. 12/4 The men are still unwilling to resume work. The Town Administrator is bringing in coolies every day from the neighbouring villages.
1963 Greenfield (Mass.) Recorder-Gaz. 2 Mar. 3/6 Greenfield's two candidates for selectman..differ on the merits of a town administrator form of government.
2010 Washington Post (Nexis) 22 May f1 Voters elect a five-member town council every two years... Day-to-day affairs of the town are handled by a town administrator—the sole full-time employee—hired by the council.
† town back n. Obsolete rare the back (back n.1 5a) of a town.
ΚΠ
1577 R. Holinshed Hist. Scotl. 475/2 in Chron. I All their horsemen issued out of the towne backe with certayne footemen.
town ball n. U.S. regional (chiefly southern and south Midland) (now historical) = baseball n. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > games similar to baseball > [noun]
baseball1748
pat-ball1775
town ball1813
stickball1824
rounders1828
roundball1834
feeder1844
one-old-cat1856
softball1867
one-eyed cat1908
vigoroc1930
slow-pitch1934
fast-pitch1939
stoop ball1941
fastball1943
lob ball1949
whiffle-ball1954
Wiffle ball1955
T-ball1962
1813 J. Hartsell Jrnl. 25 Dec. in E. Tennessee Hist. Soc. Publ. (1940) 12 134 Several of the majors and Several of the Docters and my Selfe Commenced that game Coled town ball.
1837 Indiana Jrnl. 13 May 3/3 Any person who shall on the Sabbath day play at cricket,..town ball, corner ball, or any other game of ball..shall forfeit and pay the sum of one dollar.
1975 E. Wigginton Foxfire 3 466 We'd go out and play town ball.
2009 W. J. Ryczek Baseball's First Inning iii. 39 In New England, they played a game called round ball, which employed rules very similar to those of rounders and town ball.
town belt n. (also with capital initials) New Zealand a belt of public land around or in a town or city, reserved chiefly for scenic or recreational purposes; cf. green belt n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [noun] > land in or beside town
town-sidea1500
outlot1643
town belt1843
1843 N.Z. Colonist 12 May 2 Allotments of Town Acre No. 776, adjoining Sellars' Dairy, commanding a run of the Town Belt.
1889 W. Davidson Stories N.Z. Life 61 The native bush which covers a large portion of the ‘town belt’.
1998 Southland (N.Z.) Times (Nexis) 11 June 18 The document does not permit development on the river reserve and promotes conserving the town belt to complement the character of Arrowtown.
town bike n. derogatory slang (originally Australian) (with the) a woman who is notorious in a particular town for her promiscuity; cf. bike n.2 3.
ΚΠ
1945 S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. 123 A willing girl is sometimes described as an office bike, a town bike, etc.
1951 D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 178 The little bitch got up with a squeal and tried to cover herself with a cushion. Young Herb looked scared... ‘I might have known you were the bloody town bike.’
1964 R. H. Morrieson Came Hot Friday 164 Why don't you tell the old tit you're the town bike?
2000 Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 25 June (Seven Days section) 5/2 One young man said people probably wouldn't believe ‘the town bike’ if she reported being raped.
town-born adj. born in a particular town; born in a town or other urban area (cf. country-born adj. (b) at country n. and adj. Compounds 4).
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [adjective] > town-bred
town-born1578
town-bred1619
1578 J. Lyly Euphues f. 10 Philautus being a towne borne childe,..crepte into credite with Don Ferardo one of the chiefe gouernours of the citie.
1674 in Notes & Queries (1902) 9th Ser. 9 463/1 A free School to teach 20 poor town-born children born in Westminster.
1765 Let. to Great Man in Wells 22 Will he say to the Freemen of Wells, don't choose a town-born candidate, but let your election fall upon a stranger?
1821 C. Lamb in London Mag. May 493/1 From the circumstance of my being town-born.
1965 R. H. Ross Georgian Revolt x. 232 The poetic insincerity which arises when town-born poets sentimentalize over rustic virtues.
1997 J. Connell Papua New Guinea viii. 191 A generation of town-born unemployed has now emerged.
town box n. now historical a box containing the public funds, documents, etc., of a town; the town chest.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [noun] > of a sovereign or state > specific town
town's money1491
town box1550
town chest1591
1550 in L. F. Salzman Town Bk. Lewes (1946) 5 One of the Constables shall allwayes have yn his keepyng the towne boxe & the other the towne keye.
1659 J. Gauden Ἱερα Δακρυα Embleme Trees sig. **ij Upon the confiscation of them to their Town-box or Exchequer.
1684 in R. Renwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Peebles (1910) 112 Five merks to the toun box, and fyve merks to the dean of gild box.
1801 C. Cruttwell Tour Great Brit. IV. 121 In the town box is preserved a copy, or counterpart, of a petition sent to the king.
1970 W. B. Stephens & N. Fuidge in W. B. Stephens Hist. Congleton iii. 74 In 1647 the mayor had to disburse £2 2s from the town box.
town bull n. a bull owned in common by a town or parish (now historical); (figurative) a man likened to such a bull, esp. in being promiscuous.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > bull > [noun] > passed amongst owners of cows
town bull1582
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > [noun] > person > male
franion1571
Corinthian1575
colt1584
libertine1584
tit1601
night-sneaker1611
highboy1667
man of the town1671
town bull1709
gay deceiver1710
Lothario1756
playboy1829
gay dog1847
girlie-man1897
lizard1935
player1968
mack daddy1991
1582 Aldeburgh Rec. in Notes & Queries (1920) 6 Nov. 366/2 Pd to Thoms hooker for ye Toune bull.
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 ii. ii. 149 A kinswoman of my masters... Euen such kinne as the parish Heicfors are to the towne bull.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Bannier Taureau bannier, a common, or town, bull.
1709 Brit. Apollo 30 Sept.–5 Oct. As dull as a Dormouse at hom, but a vary toun Bull abroad.
1794 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 236 As he was proved to be the Town Bull, it was finally settled that the parish should pay all the damages for not keeping him in better order.
1881 E. E. Hale in J. Winsor Mem. Hist. Boston III. ii. 91 A camp-follower..received one hundred lashes for killing the town bull and selling the beef.
1983 P. Brown & S. Gaines Love You Make vii. 126 It appeared from the evidence on the solicitor's desk..that Paul had been a bit of a town bull in Liverpool. Claims for paternity suits rolled in.
2009 V. B. Conger Widow's Might iv. 125 The widow Hannah Pickering was paid for wintering the town bull for two years.
† town bushel n. Obsolete a local measure of capacity taken as a bushel; a container used to measure this; cf. bushel n.1 1, 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > measurement > the scientific measurement of volume > measure(s) of capacity > [noun] > dry measure > specific dry measure units > bushel
bushelc1300
London bushela1475
town bushel1618
full1657
coal bushel1670
strake1706
1618 Owles Almanacke 9 The Circle of the Sunne is bigger than any Towne bushell, yea though you allow vnto it London water-measure.
1647 T. Fuller Good Thoughts in Worse Times iv. xi. 158 As the Towne-Bushell is the Standard both to measure Corne, and other Bushels by.
town car n. U.S. (a) (now chiefly historical) a four-door motor car having a permanently enclosed passenger compartment and an open driver's compartment; cf. sedanca n.; (b) a (luxury) motor car available for public hire with a driver, a livery car.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > motor car > [noun] > car with hood over rear part
landaulette1901
town car1906
coupé de ville1930
1906 N.Y. Times 13 Jan. 10/4 (advt.) Touring Cars, Chassis, Town Cars, with Landaulet and Brougham bodies..are exhibited.
1951 Jet 20 Dec. 42 Film factory folk recall Step's earlier days of chauffeured, white town cars, $250 suits, and diamond stickpins.
2004 Philadelphia Apr. 46/3 Instead of a cab, he hired a town car and drove to pick me up.
town centre n. (a) U.S. the centre of a town (sense 6); (b) the central part of a town, esp. that which forms the main business or shopping district.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [noun] > parts of town
panec1400
retinue1535
new town1600
town centre1836
Middletown1855
neighbourhood unit1929
1836 J. W. Barber Connecticut Hist. Coll. 380 About one and a half miles to the north west, there are iron works, and some other manufacturing business carried on, with a village about the size of the one at the town center.
1905 Times 4 Oct. 16/2 (advt.) Pretty grounds. Full south aspect... 10 minutes' from town centre.
1966 Guardian 10 Sept. 14/1 A recently started town-centre housing scheme.
2006 G. C. Van Dusen Canton Township (back cover) No single town center emerged, but two villages..sprang up to provide centers of community activity.
2012 Independent 26 Jan. 36/1 Head for your local high street, town centre or main road shopping strip... Just look at those empty shops.
town chest n. now historical a chest containing the public funds, documents, etc., of a town; = town box n.
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1591 H. Barrow Plaine Refut. Giffardes Bk. iii. 146 They gather and keepe the Church stocke and treasurie... They keep one of the keyes of the towne cheste.
1682 Galway Corporation Bk. B in Jrnl. Galway Archaeol. & Hist. Soc. (1908) 135 Ordred in Councell that..the two Sherriffs..make inspecion into the Towne Chest for a..copy of Andrew Lynches grant.
1730 S. Dale Taylor's Hist. & Antiq. Harwich iv. 220 The Mayor..at these Sessions hath had a Silver Oar carried before him, still preserved in the Town Chest.
1860 Farmer's Mag. July 20/2 Equal changes since Roman times in the estuary of the Yare are attested..by the Saxon map in the town chest of Yarmouth.
1946 Eng. Hist. Rev. 61 10 The tailors' gild was willing to pay 100s. into the town chest in 1406 for this protection.
2003 B. Masters in J. T. Smith & M. A. North St Albans 1650–1700 i. iii. 58 The town chest, housing among other things the common seal made of silver, was probably kept here.
town child n. an inhabitant, esp. a child, of a town or other urban area; a child born in a particular town, spec. †one eligible for free education at a school in that town (obsolete). [Compare earlier townschild n. at Compounds 2.]
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society > education > learning > learner > one attending school > [noun] > pupil having fees paid
town child1591
free-placer1899
1591 Aldeburgh Rec. in Notes & Queries (1920) 25 Dec. 504/2 To Thoms Grene for mendinge the town Chilldrens shone.
1678 tr. J.-F. Sarasin in Coll. Select Disc. France & Italy 56 I should be too long, if after the Gentleman I should examine the Town-Child [Fr. l'Enfant de la Ville]: I will content my self to say by the by, he is one that believes himself an able man.
1766 Gazetteer & New Daily Advertiser 17 Oct. As the whole 1200 will be town children, a greater proportion of them may die than if they were part country children.
1886 Dict. National Biogr. VIII. 277/1 Entered at Christ's Hospital, probably as a ‘town child’ or ‘free scholar’.
1943 Our Towns (Women's Group on Public Welfare) ii. 23 It has become a commonplace to say that the town child is underslept.
2000 I. Hingley in M. Battiste Reclaiming Indigenous Voice & Vision vii. 103 In school, I would find myself alienated from the town children if I played with my friends from White Bear at recess.
town church n. a church located in a town or city, esp. as distinguished from one in a rural area; the church of a particular town (cf. town kirk n. at Compounds 1a(a)(ii)).
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1642 in W. T. Mellows Peterborough Local Admin.: Minutes & Accts. Feoffees & Governors (Northants. Rec. Soc.) (1937) 112 John Lovill for a house neare the Towne Church in Combersgate.
1645 S. Eaton & T. Taylor Def. Sundry Positions 11 One Congregation differeth from another, as one small Countrey Chappell differeth from a numerous Towne Church.
1867 Jrnl. Stat. Soc. London 30 109 In many town churches marriages are performed by the score.
1888 P. Schaff Hist. Christian Church VI. xxvii. 136 He preached both in the Convent and in the town-church.
2007 S. Patton Journey into Flaubert's Normandy i. 8/3 The local literary society and chamber of commerce paid for a new tombstone for Delamare's grave, which lies just outside the town church.
town clown n. U.S. slang (now rare) (among hobos) a policeman working in a village or small town.
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society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > policeman > town or village
village constable1924
town clown1927
1927 Amer. Speech 2 387/1 The town clown's badge is called a tomato can.
1931 ‘D. Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route i. 20 There should always be some retreat, preferably a thicket, into which the hobos can flee, should they receive an unwelcome visit from the ‘town clown’, or the law enforcer of the community.
1964 European Stars & Stripes (Darmstadt, Germany) 1 Sept. 6/3 Other planks in his hobo party platform include ‘See to it the town clowns (small town constables) don't interfere with rubber bumming (hitchhiking)’.
town council n. the elected governing and administrative body in a town or other small municipality; cf. council n. 10.
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society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > local government body > [noun] > town or borough council
corporation1463
Common Council1467
consulatea1513
state1516
town council1637
commonality1649
regency1704
communa1711
municipality1790
municipal corporation1833
commune1837
borough council1879
municipy1882
1637 R. Monro Exped. Scots Regim. ii. 117 All Papists were ordained to assemble and meete at Lockhousen, where they were set off the Towne Councell.
1681 Acts Parl. Scotl. VIII. 411/2 Ane Act of the Town Council of the Burgh of Dumbartan in favors of the trades therof.
1775 A. Burnaby Trav. Middle Settlements N.-Amer. 75 (note) Each township is managed by a town-council.
1854 Times 26 Apr. 7/6 To..enable the magistrates and town-councils to appoint public analyzers in towns.
1863 H. Cox Inst. Eng. Govt. iii. ix. 730 The members of a Town Council are the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors.
1939 Winnipeg Free Press 26 Apr. 14/6 The town council has approved of the purchase of a new caterpillar Diesel road patrol grader.
2012 Independent 22 Mar. 29/2 Photographic evidence was submitted by the town council in support of its application.
town councillor n. a member of a town council.
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society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > local government body > [noun] > member of local government council > town-councillor
portman1346–7
commoner1384
burgessc1390
common-councilmana1637
councilman1659
corporator1670
gownsman1675
counsel-house-man1697
town councillor1731
1731 in W. Cramond Ann. Banff (1891) I. 204 Town Councillors regularly qualify to His Majesty, King George, by taking the oaths of abjuration, allegiance, supremacy and assurance.
1850 J. Wilson Ann. Hawick 137 [anno 1727] Walter Scott, town councillor, is degraded as such by the council..in respect of his twice breaking prison, after being convict by the bailies of a riot.
2000 CEEmail Spring 6/3 The Pedestrians Association representative and four town councillors went on a ‘walkabout’ of the area to view the issues raised.
town crier n. a person employed to make public announcements in the streets or marketplace of a town; = crier n. 1a.Now only a ceremonial role.
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society > communication > information > announcing or proclaiming > [noun] > announcer or proclaimer > town crier or bellman
criera1387
bellman1391
beadlec1432
forcriera1440
common crier1535
town crier1560
lantern and candle man1592
night-walker1699
yelper1725
1560 Bible (Geneva) Ecclus. xx. 14 He openeth his mouthe like a towne crier.
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. ii. 3 I had as liue the towne cryer spoke my lines.
1712 F. Bragge Full & Impartial Acct. Discov. Sorcery & Witchcraft 13 Jane Wenham's Husband had desired Richard Harvey to speak to the Town-Crier at Hertford to cry down his wife.
1725 New Canting Dict. Yelper, a Town-Cryer; also, one subject to complain.
1867 A. Trollope Last Chron. Barset II. lix. 166 Her secret had been published, as it were, by the town-crier.
1987 Aiken (S. Carolina) Standard 13 Sept. 1/5 Thousands of schoolchildren, federal workers and tourists will be treated to..announcements from a ‘town crier’ and entertainment by a Ben Franklin lookalike.
1995 Guardian 20 Oct. 3/2 He is a town crier from Walsall.
town cross n. a cross erected in the marketplace of a town; cf. market cross n.The stocks or pillory were often located at the town cross.
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1577 R. Holinshed Hist. Scotl. 488/1 in Chron. I Certaine men and women of Edenburgh were accused of Heresie, & abiured at the towne crosse with faggottes on their backes.
1705 J. Browne Secret Hist. Queen Zarah ii. 88 They caus'd his Letters to be expos'd on the Town Cross.
1850 J. Wodderspoon Memorials Anc. Town Ipswich 239 Offenders against the laws of the market and of the town..were placed in the stocks or pillory at the Town Cross.
2011 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 23 July 6 The Banff town cross has not been seen publicly for almost 20 years and is kept in storage at Mintlaw.
town-dab n. English regional (southern) the lemon sole, Microstomus kitt.
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the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > order Pleuronectiformes (flat-fish) > [noun] > family Pleuronectidae > miscellaneous types of
sandnecker1835
town-dab1836
rock sole1850
sand-sucker1862
Greenland halibut1872
whiff1873
greenback1947
1836 W. Yarrell Hist. Brit. Fishes II. 222 It [sc. the Lemon Dab, or Smooth Dab]..is taken on the Sussex coast, where it is known by the name of Town-Dab.
1884 F. Day in Fisheries Exhib. Lit. VIII. 208 Smear-dab (Pleuronectes microcephalus). Names.—Smear-dab..; lemon-dab or lemon-sole (Belfast)..; smooth-dab or bastard-sole; town-dab, Hastings; French sole, Youghal; [etc.].
1965 B. B. Rae Lemon Sole 7 Other names include lemon-dab (Belfast), town-dab (Hastings), [etc.].
town father n. one of the leading men or authorities of a town; a town official. [Compare earlier city father n. at city n. Compounds 2.]
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society > authority > office > holder of office > other municipal officials > [noun]
sergeant1423
town officer1523
dozener1558
varlet1601
culler1663
rhingylla1722
wardman1792
town father1847
presidente1851
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > types of town- or city-dweller
tenser1444
under-citizen1711
town father1847
non-citizen1850
1847 Newport (Rhode Island) Daily News 8 June Hoping, Mr. Editor, that you will..call the attention of the town fathers to this matter.
1892 Pall Mall Gaz. 15 June 6/1 At the station the town-fathers offered her some refreshments.
2000 P. Moore Full Montezuma (2001) xi. 165 The International Rainforest Festival, an attempt by the town fathers to pursue the eco-tourist dollar, was still two months away.
town foot n. Scottish and English regional (northern) the lower end of a town or village; cf. townhead n.
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1722 R. Wodrow Hist. Sufferings Church of Scotl. II. App. 108 Thomas Brown Son to William Brown in Town-foot of Auchlochan.
1827 W. Scott Surgeon's Daughter in Chron. Canongate 1st Ser. II. ii. 31 Every old woman, from the Townhead to the Townfit, can prescribe a dose of salts, or spread a plaster.
1898 R. Blakeborough Wit N. Riding Yorks. xv. 293 ‘Sophy John’ keeps a lodging-hoos noo at t' Toon foot.
1901 ‘G. Douglas’ House with Green Shutters (1902) xiii. 134 A big contract for carting stones atween the quarry and the town foot.
2005 M. Rodger Borth'ick Waitter (SCOTS) Throwe yon ford anenst Deanburnhaugh toun fit.
town gas n. now historical = coal gas n. [Perhaps after German Stadtgas (1853), apparently so called on account of its production in municipal gas works and its use in towns, originally especially for street lighting.]
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society > occupation and work > materials > fuel > gas or types of gas > [noun]
gas1808
oil-gas1820
wood-gasc1865
town gas1867
fuel-gas1886
power gas1901
bottled gas1930
biogas1958
North Sea gas1965
1867 Rep. before Joint. Comm. City Council of Boston upon Subj. of Gas 283 You test Cannel gas in the laboratory, and you will get 24 candles..but try it with the rough and tumble working of ordinary houses, and it will be about 20 candles, as the town gas of Liverpool was when I tried it.
1908 F. E. Junge Gas Power ii. 31 The price for town gas has been gradually reduced during this period.
2012 R. A. Muller Energy Future Presidents iv. 91 Town gas consisted mostly of hydrogen and highly poisonous carbon monoxide.
town–gown adj. designating or relating to interactions between the inhabitants of a university town and members of the university (cf. sense 9 and gown n. 5).Chiefly with reference to disagreements or conflicts.
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1914 G. M. A. Ives Hist. Penal Methods xix. 325 The old discreditable Town–Gown brawls have grown harmless as a Guy Fawkes day.
1976 Nature 15 July 164/1 A good example of town–gown friction came a few years ago when the city council passed a resolution..to pave over Harvard Yard and turn it into a parking lot.
1993 Independent (Nexis) 30 Oct. 54 Sadly these two buildings seem to symptomise the age-old town/gown divide.
2013 S. K. Kohn Pop. Protest in Late Medieval Eng. Towns iii. 74 They point to an abundance of cases of town–gown conflict.., especially at Oxford.
town guard n. (a) the guard (guard n. 9a) policing a garrison town; (b) (in Scotland) the military or quasi-military guard (guard n. 9a) of a town, responsible for keeping public order (now historical). [Compare earlier town watch n. at Compounds 1a(a)(ii).]
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society > law > law enforcement > law-enforcement or peace-officer > [noun] > quasi-military guard of town
town guard1608
society > law > law enforcement > law-enforcement or peace-officer > [noun] > guard policing garrison town
town guard1608
1608 E. Grimeston tr. J. F. Le Petit Gen. Hist. Netherlands xii. 792 By chance a souldier of the town guard [Fr. de la garde de la ville], walking vp and down, met them, and knew them.
1690 Haddington Burgh Rec. 10 May in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue at Toun The counsell allows ane accompt dew to John Lamb for match furnished to the toun guard.
1709 D. Defoe Hist. Union Great Brit. Of Carrying on of Treaty 68 The Magistrates had sent for the Town Guard to protect the second Officer in Reading.
1805 R. Forsyth Beauties Scotl. I. 107 To raise, for the defence of the city [sc. Edinburgh], a corps of no fewer than 126 men,..which is called the town-guard.
1811 Gen. Regulations & Orders Army 101 An Adjutant of the Day is to be furnished from the Regiment which gives the Town Guard, or the Commander in Chief's Guard.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian v, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. I. 142 There was a centinel upon guard, who, (that one town-guard soldier might do his duty..) presented his piece, and desired the foremost of the rioters to stand off.
1908 Hist. War S. Afr. III. xx. 480 They attacked the garrison, which consisted of a half company of the 2nd Seaforth Highlanders and the town guard.
2004 G. Rosie Curious Scotl. (2006) 136 The graveyards of Glasgow were carefully watched by the town guard.
town hack n. now historical a horse for riding in town; (also occasionally) a horse-drawn carriage available for hire in a town.
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1761 Gen. Evening Post 9 Apr. Mounted on a bright bay horse or mare, which seemed to be a town hack.
1859 J. S. Rarey Art of taming Horses (new ed.) viii. 132 A cover or country hack must be fast, but need not be so showy in action or handsome as a town hack.
1906 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. May 622 There was the rumble of the town hack; it stopped at the gate.
2009 B. Metzger Wicked Ways of True Hero ix. 93 The young man..was at Tatt's looking for a town hack, most likely something showy and beyond his capabilities.
townhead n. Scottish and English regional (northern) the upper end of a town or village; cf. town foot n.Frequently in place names.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town, village, or collection of dwellings > [noun] > parts of town or village
town end1192
west end1428
head1458
townhead1536
frontier1894
1536 in J. Imrie et al. Burgh Court Bk. Selkirk (1960) 167 Vaitter fra the towne heid of Midlame est throu the common of Selkirk.
1635 in Dumbarton Burgh Rec. (1860) 48 Fra the guttar up to the Townheid.
1777 J. Nicolson & R. Burn Hist. Westmorland & Cumberland I. 529 About half a mile from the town head, in the year 1774, was found in digging peats, two foot below the surface, a copper vessel, sound and intire.
1805 G. McIndoe Poems & Songs 62 Some b——h frae the town head has stown't.
1985 A. Owens in J. Kelman et al. Lean Tales 144 She had never been further than the townhead in all her fifteen years of marriage.
townhithe n. a haven or landing place in a town; cf. hithe n.Apparently an isolated use.
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society > travel > travel by water > berthing, mooring, or anchoring > harbour or port > [noun] > landing-place > specific
sallyport1814
townhithe1922
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xiv. [Oxen of the Sun] 368 Once her in townhithe meeting he to her bow had not doffed.
townhome n. North American (in a housing development) a multi-storey home which shares walls with other units but has its own entrance on the outside; cf. townhouse n. 3b.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > house in specific situation
townhouse1571
garden house1598
corner-house1693
wharf-house1698
notch house1825
suburban1856
twilight home1934
twilight house1971
townhome1976
1976 Washington Post 19 Apr. c18/2 (advt.) Rockshire Townhome w/3 bedrms., 2½ baths, English pub rec.rm., den, show well.
1979 Arizona Daily Star 22 July h4/1 Accordingly, when what used to be called ‘row houses’—attached houses—became economically desirable, they were at first called ‘town houses’ and are now in the process of being renamed ‘town homes’.
2006 Metro (Toronto) 25 May (Dreamhomes section) 3/1 Whether it's a condominium or townhome that you're living in, feng shui can be used to make your dream home all the more comfortable.
Town Husband n. (in Spalding, Lincolnshire) a trustee of a charity responsible for providing relief and assistance to the poor and needy. [Compare earlier Town's Husband n. at Compounds 2.]
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society > authority > office > holder of office > parish official > [noun] > dealing with illegitimate children
Town Husband1784
1784 Acct. Gentleman's Soc. at Spalding App p. xvii In said accounts, 1731, the acting town husbands charge, ‘Received of Mr. John Weyman, for Chapel Green, 10s’.
1885 Kelly's Directory Lincs. 636/2 The Town Husbands, are trustees of certain charities formed soon after the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century: they hold meetings at the Corn Exchange.
2012 Spalding Guardian (Nexis) 26 Feb. Working with the CAB, the Town Husbands agreed a means for ensuring that the money they have available is targeted towards those in greatest need.
town lady n. (a) a woman (esp. one of higher social status) who lives in a town; (b) euphemistic a prostitute (now historical); cf. town miss n., town woman n., lady of the town at Phrases 6b.
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a1642 J. Suckling Goblins iii. 42 in Fragmenta Aurea (1646) There's as much difference betwixt A Towne-Lady, and one of these [sc. Country wenches], As there is betwixt a wilde Pheasant and a tame.
1694 Comforts of Whoreing ii. 14 The Amorous prevailing Glances of our Town Ladies..Animates the Vigour, and melts down the Modesty of our Young Country Esquire.
1702 R. Steele Funeral iii. 44 She has of a sudden left her Dayry, and sets up for a fine Town-Lady.
1752 H. Fielding Amelia IV. xii. ii. 209 I never will suffer any bad Doings in my House, nor any of the Town Ladies to come to Gentlemen here.
1843 Foreign Q. Rev. 30 177 He..is sure that only a town-lady (which he thinks is the same thing as a lady of the town) could have so little taste.
1882 C. Hoey & J. Lillie tr. A. Challamel Hist. Fashion in France i. 15 An elegant town lady would..adorn herself with a mantle that half covered her head.
1984 D. Marc Demographic Vistas ii. 45 It is..status-conscious Cousin Pearl, a town lady and a piano teacher, who convinces Jed to leave his beloved hills.
2011 L. J. Rosenthal in L. Manley Cambr. Compan. Lit. of London v. 87 The phrase itself underscores the popular belief, possibly promoted by..sex workers themselves (‘town ladies’), that before their families abandoned them.., they too were country girls.
town life n. life in a town; spec. the social life of a town.
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society > society and the community > social relations > [noun] > of a town
town life1672
1672 A. Marvell Rehearsal Transpros'd (ed. 2) 37 He follow'd the Town life, haunted the best companies.
1693 Humours & Conversat. Town 103 You have none of these in your Town-life.
1779 Mirror No. 58. ⁋5 Emilia had acquired a stronger attachment to the pleasures of a town life, than was..right in itself.
1880 T. A. Spalding Elizabethan Demonol. 133 The very rush and swirl of town life.
2003 P. Thomas & A. Vaitlingam Jamaica: Rough Guide (ed. 3) 222 Town life is low-key, organized around a small square and a series of basic commercial centres and no-frills rum joints.
town limits n. the boundaries of a town; (also in singular) a boundary of this type.
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1752 Laws Govt. New-Castle, Kent & Sussex, upon Delaware 78 The killing or destroying of any Hogs belonging to any Person or Persons not inhabiting or dwelling in the said Town Limits.
1841 Settler & Pennon (Smethport, Pennsylvania) 22 July 2/4 A young jackass was born within the town limits on the same day, so that the town gained as much as it lost.
1917 Kindergarten & First Grade June 238/2 The boulevard, a splendid road which..informally marked the town limit.
2013 Frome & Somerset Standard (Nexis) 31 Oct. 13 There can be no doubt that speeding is on the increase within the town limits.
town liver n. a person who lives in a town; a town dweller.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun]
borough-manc1000
city mana1400
townsman1433
town manc1475
town dweller1484
oppidan?1548
burgher?1555
townsfolk1562
townsfolk1592
townswoman1612
town liver1620
town folk1679
citess1685
citizeness1754
citizette1798
townie1825
urban1835
townskip1837
townsperson1840
urbanite1892
burgheress1901
1620 Horæ Subseciuæ 153 Riding, Shooting,..some towne-liuers, sometimes make hard shift to practise.
1860 John Bull & Britannia 14 Apr. 233/3 The poor man, if a town liver, suffers more severely still, for the atmosphere in which he breathes is tainted.
2006 UK Newsquest Regional Press (Worcester) (Nexis) 5 July We hope to build up a programme that will appeal to town livers who want to get out and find some peace in a timeless atmosphere.
town living n. (a) an ecclesiastical benefice in a town (see living n.2 2); (b) the fact of living in a town; town life.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabiting a type of place > [noun] > the town
town living1708
urbanism1884
society > faith > worship > benefice > kinds of benefice > [noun] > in a town
town living1708
1708 J. Swift Let. 9 Nov. in Wks. (1763) XI. 20 Until your Grace and the Dean of St. Patrick's shall think fit to dispose of that poor Town-Living in my Favour.
1755 Monitor (1756) I. 183 Town living runs high, even in necessaries; and as to pleasures, though they are not necessaries, yet they are deemed such by young men.
1832 J. J. Blunt Reformation in Eng. iv. 65 Thus it came to pass that town livings (contrary to all reason) are at present, of all others, the poorest.
1863 E. FitzGerald Lett. (1889) I. 290 I suppose Town-living makes one alive to such a Change.
1939 S. L. Gwynn H. Grattan & his Times ii. 7 Swift had manœuvred both Robin and Jack into good town livings.
1998 R. Finnegan Tales of City ii. 19 The original free state of nature yielding to..alienation and the constrictions of town living.
town loan n. Scottish = loan n.2 2.
ΚΠ
1726 J. Harvey Coll. of Misc. Poems & Lett. 66 God let me never die till I see the Laird of N—drie upon his awn Town-Loan.
1812 W. Tennant Anster Fair i. lv. 24 Hobbling in each town-loan in awkward guise.
1929 J. Alexander Mains & Hilly 54 Bit gin a curn loons meet on the toon loan, a'body's character gets a redd up.
town manager n. originally and chiefly U.S. the chief administrative and executive officer of a town or other small municipality. [Compare slightly earlier city manager n. at city n. Compounds 2.]
ΚΠ
1912 Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 13 Jan. 4/2 With the ever present possibility of being recalled, it is assured that the town manager would fulfill his duties with intelligence, industry and honesty.
1952 R. E. Baldwin Let's go into Politics ii. 32 The town manager..was replaced in office over the simple question of whether or not a modest appropriation for ash cans to be used around the city streets had been properly administered.
2013 R. Wuthnow Small-town Amer. vi. 181 The day-to-day business of town administration is more likely to be in the hands of a full-time salaried town manager than a part-time mayor.
town mayor n. the chairperson of a town council.
ΚΠ
1886 Encycl. Brit. Amer. Suppl. III. 533/1 He decides the attitude his paper shall take regarding..the selection of a town mayor.
1929 Eng. Jrnl. 18 328 Many schools now pass over [to judge a debate]..the town mayor, unless he has had experience in speaking and judging.
1974 Guardian 16 Apr. 7/7 Dr Graham Kirkland, the town mayor and the only Liberal on the council.
2013 Scunthorpe Tel. (Nexis) 3 Oct. 53 She has served on Broughton Town Council for more than 30 years and was town mayor three times.
town miss n. now historical a young woman who lives in a town; spec. a kept mistress, a prostitute.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute
meretrixOE
whoreOE
soiled dovea1250
common womanc1330
putec1384
bordel womanc1405
putaina1425
brothelc1450
harlot?a1475
public womanc1510
naughty pack?1529
draba1533
cat1535
strange woman1535
stew1552
causey-paikera1555
putanie?1566
drivelling1570
twigger1573
punka1575
hackney1579
customer1583
commodity1591
streetwalker1591
traffic1591
trug1591
hackster1592
polecat1593
stale1593
mermaid1595
medlar1597
occupant1598
Paphian1598
Winchester goose1598
pagan1600
hell-moth1602
aunt1604
moll1604
prostitution1605
community1606
miss1606
night-worm1606
bat1607
croshabell1607
prostitute1607
pug1607
venturer1607
nag1608
curtal1611
jumbler1611
land-frigate1611
walk-street1611
doll-common1612
turn-up1612
barber's chaira1616
commonera1616
public commonera1616
trader1615
venturea1616
stewpot1616
tweak1617
carry-knave1623
prostibule1623
fling-dusta1625
mar-taila1625
night-shadea1625
waistcoateera1625
night trader1630
coolera1632
meretrician1631
painted ladya1637
treadle1638
buttock1641
night-walker1648
mob?1650
lady (also girl, etc.) of the game1651
lady of pleasure1652
trugmullion1654
fallen woman1659
girlc1662
high-flyer1663
fireship1665
quaedama1670
small girl1671
visor-mask1672
vizard-mask1672
bulker1673
marmalade-madam1674
town miss1675
town woman1675
lady of the night1677
mawks1677
fling-stink1679
Whetstone whore1684
man-leech1687
nocturnal1693
hack1699
strum1699
fille de joie1705
market-dame1706
screw1725
girl of (the) town1733
Cytherean1751
street girl1764
monnisher1765
lady of easy virtue1766
woman (also lady) of the town1766
kennel-nymph1771
chicken1782
stargazer1785
loose fish1809
receiver general1811
Cyprian1819
mollya1822
dolly-mop1834
hooker1845
charver1846
tail1846
horse-breaker1861
professional1862
flagger1865
cocodette1867
cocotte1867
queen's woman1871
common prostitute1875
joro1884
geisha1887
horizontal1888
flossy1893
moth1896
girl of the pavement1900
pross1902
prossie1902
pusher1902
split-arse mechanic1903
broad1914
shawl1922
bum1923
quiff1923
hustler1924
lady of the evening1924
prostie1926
working girl1928
prostisciutto1930
maggie1932
brass1934
brass nail1934
mud kicker1934
scupper1935
model1936
poule de luxe1937
pro1937
chromo1941
Tom1941
pan-pan1949
twopenny upright1958
scrubber1959
slack1959
yum-yum girl1960
Suzie Wong1962
mattress1964
jamette1965
ho1966
sex worker1971
pavement princess1976
parlour girl1979
crack whore1990
1675 (title) The character of a town misse.
1676 Country Miss (single sheet) A farewel to the pockifi'd town-miss.
1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure II. 98 I was not at all out of figure to pass for a modest girl. I had neither the feathers, nor fumet of a tawdry town-miss.
1835 A. Bell Cabinet I. xxx. 233 Town misses, by dint of reading novels, fancy they have a taste for groves and streams.
1921 D. H. Lawrence Sea & Sardinia vi. 245 Two town-misses in fur coats.
2003 B. Capp When Gossips Meet iv. 183 The position of a ‘town miss’, maintained in her own lodgings by a gentleman or prosperous tradesman.
town mouse n. [after classical Latin urbānus mūs (Horace), ancient Greek μῦς ἀστικός (Aesop)] (with allusion to one of Aesop's fables) a town dweller, esp. one who is unfamiliar with country life (cf. country mouse n. at country n. and adj. Compounds 4).
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > as opposed to country
citizen?1518
cockney1564
cit1633
townling1738
townie1825
town mouse1835
townsperson1840
townee1899
1553 R. Burrant in tr. Preceptes Cato (new ed.) sig. x.iiiv The Mouse of the countrie, that was led into the citie, by the Toune Mouse, and of the same Mouse feasted.
1750 Student 1 No. 5. 190 Town-mice, he knew, luxurious were.]
1835 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Aug. 199/1 We country mice must trim our whiskers and manners to the newest cut ere we visit the town mice.
1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days ii. iii. 283 Here's Arthur a regular young town-mouse, with a natural taste for the woods.
1997 Billboard 4 Oct. (Elton John Tribute section) 12 I believe you once described the two of you together as a town mouse and a country mouse.
town park n. (in Ireland) any of a number of small fields or plots of ground adjoining a town or village, usually let for cultivation or pasture; an allotment.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > [noun] > enclosed land or field
tye832
hopea1000
fieldOE
field landOE
glebe1387
parka1393
closec1440
outset1506
intake1523
rout1598
fielden1610
town park1701
paddock1808
savannah1882
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > [noun] > enclosed land or field > other fields
broom-fieldc1314
summer field1597
roughet1616
share acre1641
work field1684
town park1701
tath-field1753
town1822
gas field1833
summer country1860
broom-croft1871
infield1875
1701 List Claims entred with Trustees Chichester-House, Dublin 37 The big Park and the old Town Park.
1870 Act 33 & 34 Victoria c. 46 §15 Any demesne land, or any holding ordinarily termed ‘townparks’ adjoining or near to any city or town.
1887 in Pall Mall Gaz. 24 Mar. 13/2 To secure the just rights of the town park holders.
1996 C. I. Macafee Conc. Ulster Dict. 363/1 Town-park, land held in connection with a town-house.
town-piece n. [compare piece n. 16] now rare a coin issued by or current in a town.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > other mediums of exchange > [noun] > token used in place of coin > issued by a town
town-piece1744
1744 Ford Catal. Curious & Valuable Cabinet 3 Greek brass Town pieces on one board.
1805 in Brathwait's Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys (new ed.) Advt. p. xv A Harrington was a town piece, tradesman's token, or other small coin, current in the early part of the seventeenth century.
1903 Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist. & Antiq. Field Club 24 53 He collected English and Irish tokens and town-pieces generally.
town-place n. English regional (Cornwall) a village, a hamlet, a farmyard.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmstead > [noun] > farm-offices > farmyard
yardc1300
barnyard1354
closec1386
fold?a1505
barton1552
town-place1602
homestall1653
fold-stead1663
farmyard1686
fold-garth1788
fold-yard1800
farm court1807
1602 Surv. Treverbyn Courtney in N. W. Alcock & C. Carson W. Country Farms 1598–1764 (2007) vii. 101/1 Gregory Rowse holdeth there a messuage and tenement containing a faire hall, a buttry, a kitchin, a milkehowse,..a backside and a towneplace.
1787 F. Grose Provinc. Gloss. Town-place, a farm-yard. Cornw.
1867 All Year Round 16 Mar. 276/1 There dwelt, in scattered villages or town-places, as they are called to this day, the bold and hardy Keltic people.
1880 T. Q. Couch E. Cornwall Words in M. A. Courtney & T. Q. Couch Gloss. Words Cornwall 104 Town, Town-place, applied to the smallest hamlet, and even to a farm-yard.
1912 C. Mackenzie Carnival xxxviii. 381 Behind the house was the town-place, a squelchy courtyard hemmed in by stables and full of casual domestic animals.
1986 A. L. Rowse Little Land of Cornwall 192 Around the town-place (i.e. farm-yard) at Trecarrell one can still see shaped and moulded stones.
town plat n. North American an area of land constituting a (proposed) town or township (township n. 4); (also) a plan showing the layout of a (proposed) town or township.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > [noun] > town-planning or development > plan
town plot1638
town plat1656
town plan1824
structure plan1967
1656 in J. H. Trumbull Public Rec. Colony of Connecticut (1850) I. 282 Thos persons that cohabitt in the towne platte.
1723 Proprietors' Rec. Waterbury, Connecticut (1911) 121 To settle the old Town platt Lotts.
1872 Rep. Progress 1870–71 (Geol. Survey Canada) 85 A little to the north and west of the town-plat of Pennfield..these Coastal rocks are somewhat coarsely granitoid.
1983 M. H. Blom & T. E. Blom Canada Home p. xii From 1784 to 1869, Fredericton was an army town, as the original, 1785 town plat attests.
2009 L. D. Rogers in W. E. Whittaker Frontier Forts Iowa xv. 203 The Birch Street location is within the original town plat of Correctionville.
Town Plate n. a silver or gold trophy given to the winner of certain horse races, and originally funded by the corporation of a town; (the name of) any of various horse races in which such a trophy is awarded.
ΚΠ
1688 London Gaz. No. 2373/4 The Town Plate and Guinea-Prize will be run for at Newport-pagnel in Bucks.
1701 London Gaz. No. 3729/4 A Town-plate of about 15l. value will be Run for at the same Place.
1847 Farmer's Mag. May 399 In 1844 he ran eight times (over the flat) and won three:—..the Town Plate at Athy.
1922 Daily News (Perth, Austral.) 17 Jan. 2/1 The days when even Town Plates and other races of importance were run in heats, and both horses and jockeys were ‘triers’.
2008 G. Whannel Blowing Whistle ii. 86 Women were barred from all races except the Newmarket Town Plate until 1972.
town platting n. U.S. the action of planning the layout of a town.
ΚΠ
1895 Cent. Mag. Aug. 638/2 The troop of boom-makers has actively given its perennial leisure to extravagant schemes of town-platting.
2007 R. Mazrim Sangamo Frontier iv. ix. 146 By the early 1830s,..town platting and real estate speculation exploded across central Illinois.
town plot n. North American = town plat n.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > [noun] > town-planning or development > plan
town plot1638
town plat1656
town plan1824
structure plan1967
1638 in Watertown Rec. (1894) i. 4 Those Freemen of the Congregation shall build & dwell vpon their Lotts at the Towne plott.
1714 in J. H. Temple & G. Sheldon Hist. Northfield, Mass. 134 That the Town-Plot be stated in the old place, in such form and measure as the Committee can allow it, according to the Court's order.
1866 F. M. Caulkins Hist. Norwich, Conn. xvii. 275 In the town-plot two open squares, or plains, were reserved for public use... Repeated applications to build upon them, by individuals, were refused.
1914 A. Macmurchy & J. D. Spence Canad. Railway Cases XVI. 416 The town plot of Medicine Hat was laid out by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.
1991 J. Jacobson Southold Connections (1997) i. 11 In early summer, 1638, John Brockett was a surveyor and directed the staking out of New Haven's town plots.
town-reeve n. now chiefly historical (a) a bailiff, a steward, esp. one in charge of an estate; (b) a local official in charge of a settlement or town; cf. portreeve n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > delegated authority > one having delegated or derived authority > [noun] > steward or bailiff in charge of another's property
town-reeveeOE
reeveeOE
gravec1175
procuratorc1300
dispender1340
provost1340
bailiec1375
officerc1375
dispenserc1380
proctora1382
dispensator1382
farmerc1384
approverc1386
husbanda1387
stewardc1405
chamberlain1423
procurer1477
factor1520
bailiff1528
land-steward1535
improver1536
grieve1537
amtman1582
administrator1596
stead-man1609
dapifer1636
vogt1694
house jobber1709
commissioner1760
foreman1774
house agent1793
ground-officer1815
land-agent1846
wic-reeve1853
steadward1876
house farmer1882
house-knacker1884
land-sergeant1894
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iv. xxv. 344 Þa com he on morgenne to þæm tungerefan [L. vilicum], þe his ealdormon wæs..& he hine sona to þære abbudissan gelædde.
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) v. xi. 416 Þa onfoeng hio se tungerefa.
OE West Saxon Gospels: Luke (Corpus Cambr.) xvi. 8 Ða herede se hlaford þære unrihtwisnesse tungerefan [L. vilicum].
1580 in W. M. Lummis Churches of Bungay (1950) 36 The town revys.
1861 C. H. Pearson Early & Middle Ages Eng. 100 A few adventurers even sailed to Dorchester, 787 a.d., and slew the town-reeve when he sought to call them to account.
1958 Eastern Daily Press (Norwich) 13 June 12/3 A donation of £10 was among those received by the Town Reeve of Bungay.
2003 A. Williams Æthelred the Unready iii. 64 Town-reeves in charge of trading-centres..were distinguished by their responsibility for overseeing commercial transactions.
town relief n. relief given to the poor or needy from town funds.
ΚΠ
1810 G. Crabbe Borough xxi. 291 For Town Relief the grieving Man applied, And beg'd with tears, what some with scorn denied.
1900 Times 25 Dec. 4/2 Of the sum of £3, 741 2s. 10d. disbursed in town relief, £3,166 16s. 1d. was distributed..to those in distress and privation through the siege [of Mafeking].
1964 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 29 408/2 At the time of his death, Weiler was in the process of completing a study of town relief in the State of Maine.
2001 P. W. Hunter Purchasing Identity in Atlantic World iv. 129 The townspeople may have hoped to put their most affluent citizens under obligation to contribute to town relief.
† town-side n. Obsolete the land close beside a town; (also) the outskirts of a town.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [noun] > land in or beside town
town-sidea1500
outlot1643
town belt1843
a1500 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Trin. Dublin) l. 2135 (MED) Þe kyng..vmbelappes þe wallez And settes vp a sawte to þe towne sydes.
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. viv If it be very ranke grounde, as is moch at euery towne syde, where catel doth resort.
1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden cxxxi. 194 The fifth groweth..by hedge sides, and path wayes, in fields, and town-sides.
1698 D. Jones Compl. Hist. Europe 1676–97 sig. Oo7 The Town-side about la Falise.
town site n. the site of a town; spec. (in North America) a tract of land set apart by legal authority to be occupied by a town, and usually surveyed and laid out with streets.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > [noun] > site of or for (a) building(s) > of type of building
housesteadOE
burghal division1591
house lot1636
shop lot1816
town site1818
homesite1911
1818 Niles' Weekly Reg. 17 Oct. 125/2 A company speculation in a town site, gave for the half of a quarter $150 per acre, and for the other half $251.
1872 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 170 The Silver State Mining Company..have located a town-site—Crystal City..—on the old Salt Lake route.
1896 G. du Maurier in Critic (N.Y.) 31 Oct. 270/1 We have made a plan of Trilby Townsite, Pasco Co., Fl[orid]a.
1999 H. Rogers Exploring Black Hills & Badlands (rev. ed.) 17 Drive south 15 miles to..the town site of Rochford.
† townskip n. Obsolete a humorous form of address for a boy.Apparently an isolated use.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun]
borough-manc1000
city mana1400
townsman1433
town manc1475
town dweller1484
oppidan?1548
burgher?1555
townsfolk1562
townsfolk1592
townswoman1612
town liver1620
town folk1679
citess1685
citizeness1754
citizette1798
townie1825
urban1835
townskip1837
townsperson1840
urbanite1892
burgheress1901
1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xxvi. 271 ‘Vell, young townskip,’ said Sam, ‘how's mother?’
townspent adj. rare (a) (of a person) worn out by living in a town (see spent adj. 3a); (b) (of a period of time) spent in town.
ΚΠ
1904 Cosmopolitan Feb. 413/1 She was pale and thin and townspent, bidden to drink milk and live in the open.
1911 D. Meyrick Phyllis & Felicity xii. 209 He found her by no means the haven of repose that would have made so welcome a contrast to his town-spent hours.
a1944 J. Jarmain Poems (1945) 44 My townspent hours are crowded into waste.
town square n. (with the) the principal square (square n. 12a) in a town, often centrally located and used for markets, festivals, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > open space > public square
placeOE
streetOE
foruma1464
pomery1533
piazza1583
agora1591
pomerium1598
plazaa1661
squarea1684
piazzetta1730
town square1769
place1793
Pnyx1820
zocalo1884
plaza1948
1769 St. James's Chron. 14 Nov. They ordered him to the Middle of the Town Square, and being exalted on an Eminence, acknowledged his Fault, promised never to offend again.
1875 S. A. Drake Nooks & Corners New Eng. Coast xviii. 290 In 1834 the fractured half was removed from the town square to its present position in front of Pilgrim Hall.
1974 ‘J. Ross’ Burning of Billy Toober ix. 88 She returned..by taxi... The driver..picked her up at the rank in the town square.
2006 Scots Mag. June 658/1 Visiting the picture house in the town square two evenings in succession..was a real treat, too.
town tallow n. now historical tallow from England, as opposed to that produced in continental Europe.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > greasy or fatty material > [noun] > derived from animals > tallow > types or forms of
tallow-loaf1483
patch-grease1614
town tallow1734
rough stuff1798
1734 Gentleman's Mag. Feb. 109/1 Town Tallow 40 s. per C.
1912 Times 19 Dec. 20/4 To-day's ‘Market Letter’ quotes—town tallow, 33s. 6d. per cwt.
2005 European Rev. Econ. Hist. 9 174 The British series is composed of equally weighted English town tallow and foreign tallow.
† town-top n. Obsolete = parish-top n. at parish n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > toy or plaything > top > [noun] > whipping-top > for public use
parish-topa1616
town-top?1617
?1617 J. Taylor Jack a Lent sig. C A great discommodity for schoole boyes, through thee want of scourges to whip Gigs and Towne-Tops.
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker i. sig. C1v He..dances like a Towne top: and reeles and hobbles.
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) xx. 92 For the Turner, Kyele-pins, great Town-Topps.
1780 W. Blackstone in E. Malone Suppl. Shakespeare's Plays I. 139 ‘To sleep like a town-top’, is a proverbial expression.
town trail n. a route through a town designed to draw the attention of tourists, walkers, etc., to features of interest.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > [noun] > frequented by tourists > in a town
town trail1972
1972 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Mar. 352 (advt.) The book includes ‘Town Trails’ which provide a detailed insight into unfamiliar aspects of London.
2011 A. S. Travis Planning for Tourism, Leisure & Sustainability iv. xxix. 200/1 Planning and management of heritage interpretation only took place in some areas where town trails, guided walks and guided bus tours were provided.
town traveller n. now rare a commercial traveller, esp. one whose activity is restricted to a particular town or city.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > selling > seller > [noun] > commercial traveller
rideout1752
rider1752
outrider1762
traveller1790
commercial traveller1807
bagman1808
town traveller1808
commis voyageur1825
roundman1827
drummer1828
travelling salesman1833
bag woman1845
commercial1861
fieldman1875
outride1879
roundsman1884
knight of the road1889
representative1918
sales representative1949
sales rep1959
rep1973
1808 Morning Post 10 Aug. 1/3 He has been situated..as Salesman and Town Traveller, in some of the most respectable houses in London.
1849 C. Dickens David Copperfield (1850) xi. 114 He was a sort of town traveller for a number of miscellaneous houses.
1930 A. Bennett Imperial Palace x. 59 A town-traveller in tinned comestibles.
town twinning n. chiefly British the practice of establishing official or social links between two towns or cities, typically in different countries; cf. twin town n. at twin adj. and n. Compounds 5. [Compare French jumelage, lit. ‘twinning’ (1956 in this sense).]
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > linking for cultural exchange
twinning1956
town twinning1957
1957 Racine (Wisconsin) Jrnl.-Times 28 June 4/5 Sister Mary Anthony..initiated the Racine–Montelimar (France) town-twinning project and is secretary of it.
1960 Sunday Express 16 Oct. 9/6 Town twinning between cities of highly developed and under-developed countries.
2012 D. Kübler & M. A. Pagano in K. Mossberger et al. Oxf. Handbk. Urban Politics i. vii. 124 Town twinning and international networking initiatives have been pursued throughout the twentieth century.
town wait n. now historical (in plural) = wait n. 8.
ΚΠ
1541 in W. Kelly Notices Illustr. Drama (1865) 192 Item paed to Thomas Goldsmyth ffor mendyng of the Towne Waytes Collars.
1616 D. Powel Loue Wales sig. B4 Hauing before them the Towne Waites and other lowd Instruments of Musicke.
1789 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music III. 102 I remember, very early in my musical life, to have heard one of the town waits, at Shrewsbury, vamp a base upon all occasions.
a1805 A. Carlyle Autobiogr. (1860) iii. 75 His band..consisted of two dancing-school fiddlers and the town-waits.
1999 C. Lawson & R. Stowell Hist. Performance Music (2003) ii. 21 Such archives..will not necessarily explain..whether the lists include..‘extras’ such as students, amateurs, town waits or military bandsmen.
town way n. †(a) a road on a manor or estate; a lane, a byroad (obsolete); (b) a road or way leading to or from a town (c) U.S. a road laid out by a town (now historical).
ΚΠ
eOE Bounds (Sawyer 558) (transcript of lost MS) in S. E. Kelly Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Pt. 1 (2001) 186 Þonon on gerihta þær tun wegas ut sceotaþ, þonon on gerihta to þære haran apoldre, of þære haran apoldre þurh þone tun to þam ruwan crundle.
OE Antwerp-London Gloss. (2011) 85 Publica uia, ealles hereweg. Priuata, tuunweg.
lOE Bounds (Sawyer 511) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1887) II. 495 Of hatan hamman. On tun weg. Of tun wege. On stapol wege.
1583 T. Stocker tr. Tragicall Hist. Ciuile Warres Lowe Countries iv. f. 66 Most couragiously made hedde vpon the Enemie, drawyng towardes the Toune waie [Fr. le chemin de la ville].
a1616 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) iii. i. 6 Euans. Which way haue you look'd..? Sim... Euery way but the Towne-way.
1732 in E. R. Hodgman Hist. Town Westford, Mass. (1883) ii. 34 That William Read should repair the Country road from Groton line to the town way that goes from Capt. Prescott's to the meeting house.
1861 C. Dickens Great Expectations III. xiv. 229 They went out to the sluice-house: though by the town way to the marshes, which I had avoided.
2004 B. Donahue Great Meadow 278 Getting a way ‘laid out’ often meant having an existing way surveyed and accepted as a town way.
townweed n. English regional (southern) dog's mercury, Mercurialis perennis.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > poisonous or harmful plants > [noun] > dog's mercury
mercuryc1450
dog's caul1578
wild mercury1578
dog's mercury1597
townweed1853
1853 A. Pratt Wild Flowers II. 139 Gardeners near the metropolis, as well as in other large cities, are as much annoyed with it [sc. dog's mercury] as those in the country; hence it is known in some places, as at Dovor, by the name of Town Weed.
1870 Court Suburb Mag. Apr. 159 Gardeners in our suburbs are annoyed sometimes by the rapidity with which the dog's mercury, or ‘town-weed’, (Mercurialis perennis) spreads and grows.
1970 Grower 5 Dec. 1155/1 An unusual farm weed called dog's mercury or townweed.
town woman n. a woman who lives in a town; (euphemistic) a prostitute; cf. town lady n., town miss n., woman of the town at Phrases 6b.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute
meretrixOE
whoreOE
soiled dovea1250
common womanc1330
putec1384
bordel womanc1405
putaina1425
brothelc1450
harlot?a1475
public womanc1510
naughty pack?1529
draba1533
cat1535
strange woman1535
stew1552
causey-paikera1555
putanie?1566
drivelling1570
twigger1573
punka1575
hackney1579
customer1583
commodity1591
streetwalker1591
traffic1591
trug1591
hackster1592
polecat1593
stale1593
mermaid1595
medlar1597
occupant1598
Paphian1598
Winchester goose1598
pagan1600
hell-moth1602
aunt1604
moll1604
prostitution1605
community1606
miss1606
night-worm1606
bat1607
croshabell1607
prostitute1607
pug1607
venturer1607
nag1608
curtal1611
jumbler1611
land-frigate1611
walk-street1611
doll-common1612
turn-up1612
barber's chaira1616
commonera1616
public commonera1616
trader1615
venturea1616
stewpot1616
tweak1617
carry-knave1623
prostibule1623
fling-dusta1625
mar-taila1625
night-shadea1625
waistcoateera1625
night trader1630
coolera1632
meretrician1631
painted ladya1637
treadle1638
buttock1641
night-walker1648
mob?1650
lady (also girl, etc.) of the game1651
lady of pleasure1652
trugmullion1654
fallen woman1659
girlc1662
high-flyer1663
fireship1665
quaedama1670
small girl1671
visor-mask1672
vizard-mask1672
bulker1673
marmalade-madam1674
town miss1675
town woman1675
lady of the night1677
mawks1677
fling-stink1679
Whetstone whore1684
man-leech1687
nocturnal1693
hack1699
strum1699
fille de joie1705
market-dame1706
screw1725
girl of (the) town1733
Cytherean1751
street girl1764
monnisher1765
lady of easy virtue1766
woman (also lady) of the town1766
kennel-nymph1771
chicken1782
stargazer1785
loose fish1809
receiver general1811
Cyprian1819
mollya1822
dolly-mop1834
hooker1845
charver1846
tail1846
horse-breaker1861
professional1862
flagger1865
cocodette1867
cocotte1867
queen's woman1871
common prostitute1875
joro1884
geisha1887
horizontal1888
flossy1893
moth1896
girl of the pavement1900
pross1902
prossie1902
pusher1902
split-arse mechanic1903
broad1914
shawl1922
bum1923
quiff1923
hustler1924
lady of the evening1924
prostie1926
working girl1928
prostisciutto1930
maggie1932
brass1934
brass nail1934
mud kicker1934
scupper1935
model1936
poule de luxe1937
pro1937
chromo1941
Tom1941
pan-pan1949
twopenny upright1958
scrubber1959
slack1959
yum-yum girl1960
Suzie Wong1962
mattress1964
jamette1965
ho1966
sex worker1971
pavement princess1976
parlour girl1979
crack whore1990
1675 W. Wycherley Country-wife ii. 16 What you wou'd have her as impudent as your self..a meer notorious Town-Woman?
1710 J. Addison Tatler No. 260. ⁋ 11 To regard every Town-Woman as a particular Kind of Siren.
1878 Detroit Lancet Apr. 268 The restrictions of the license law..had operated simply to induce a portion of the ‘town women’ to change their location to cities where no license law was in operation.
1912 ‘Saki’ Chron. Clovis 153 Astretch in a pool of mud was an enormous sow, gigantic beyond the town-woman's wildest computation of swine-flesh.
2008 R. Ross Conc. Hist. S. Afr. iv. 101 The town woman, who would trap the migrant, relieve him of his money and alienate him from his home.
C2. Compounds with town's or towns.
town's bairn n. Scottish a person native to a particular town.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > fellow townsman
concitizen1428
co-citizen1488
comburgess1517
fellow citizen1550
townsman1562
conscive1578
town's bairn?1591
comburgher1605
townsfolk1614
townschild1621
city mana1661
townsboy1699
town folk1805
townie1824
townsfellow1830
homeboy1861
homie1929
homes1971
?1591 in J. H. Pagan Ann. Ayr (1897) iii. 76 [The assistant at the grammar school received] quarterlie 12d of ilk townis barne with his meit about of ilk barne ane day successive, and of ilk landward barne 2s quarterlie.
1656 in J. Irving Hist. Dumbartonshire (1920) II. App. 325 That nane of the said craftsmen tak ane unfrieman or outer tounesbairn to be his prentice.
1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun (new ed.) iv. 32 M'Ghee, our ain town's bairn.
1822 W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel I. iii. 77 He was a Scot himsell, and what is more, a town's-bairn o' the gude town.
1906 R. Walker & A. M. Munro Handbk. City & University (Univ. Aberdeen Quatercentenary Celebrations) ii. 134 In 1755 the present West Church, built from the design of James Gibbs, the famous London architect, himself a ‘toon's bairn’, was opened for public worship.
townsboy n. (a) (at Eton College and Westminster School) = oppidan n. 2; (b) a boy who lives in a town or other urban area; a boy from one's own or the same town.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > fellow townsman
concitizen1428
co-citizen1488
comburgess1517
fellow citizen1550
townsman1562
conscive1578
town's bairn?1591
comburgher1605
townsfolk1614
townschild1621
city mana1661
townsboy1699
town folk1805
townie1824
townsfellow1830
homeboy1861
homie1929
homes1971
1699 A. Boyer Royal Dict. Oppidan, (a School-word for a Towns-Boy) Ecolier de la Ville.
1764 ‘G. Psalmanazar’ Memoirs 90 Having acquainted four or five of our clan that were my townsboys with my design.
1851 Bibliotheca Sacra 1 237 The school at Westminster contains from 300 to 350 boys in eight classes. They are divided into town's boys and king's scholars.
1905 W. S. Crockett Scott Country (ed. 3) xvi. 339 Had he been a town's boy..the probability is he might never have blossomed into a poet. He would not have been the pet child of Nature.
2001 T. Kay Taking Lottie Home 51 It was where he and Milo and other townsboys had played choose-up games of baseball as children.
townschild n. originally Scottish (a) a person native to a particular town; = town's bairn n.; (b) a child who lives in a town or other urban area.
ΚΠ
1621 in L. B. Taylor Aberdeen Council Lett. (1942) I. 190 That the annuelrent thereof may alwayes serve for entertaining one burser (that is no townesbairne) for his four yeeris course; or two townes children for the same space.
1708 in A. Mitchell Inverness Kirk-session Rec. (1902) 52 The Moderatour presented an Act of Synod for choising Mr George Brodie to be yr burser.., and knowing him to be a town's child and of good character, did recommend him.
1837 F. Palgrave Merchant & Friar 15 He found them in the yard, where they were absolutely beset by the townsmen, townswomen, and townschildren.
1906 Academy 7 Apr. 328/1 Townschildren and nurses are often woefully ignorant on the subject of edible berries.
1908 E. G. Alden H. N. Haskell ii. 26 She came..from the precincts of Waldoboro, but not moving in the same class nor claiming the remotest acquaintance with her fellow town's-child.
2005 C. Grimes H. Pinter's Politics v. 161 Pinter invents a scene in which townschildren accuse the title character of being too contemplative.
townsfellow n. a fellow inhabitant of a town.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > fellow townsman
concitizen1428
co-citizen1488
comburgess1517
fellow citizen1550
townsman1562
conscive1578
town's bairn?1591
comburgher1605
townsfolk1614
townschild1621
city mana1661
townsboy1699
town folk1805
townie1824
townsfellow1830
homeboy1861
homie1929
homes1971
1830 S. Morgan France in 1829–30 I. 475 My novel..was a vivid sketch of many of my town's-fellows of Calais.
1850 W. Allingham Poems 101 On they passed; Townsfellows all from first to last.
2006 K. E. Pogue Shakespeare's Friends 14 It seemed to Sturley and Quiney that their townsfellow, the actor William Shakespeare, might have an additional thirty pounds to lend.
town's hall n. = town hall n. 1.
ΚΠ
?1609 J. Healey tr. Bp. J. Hall Discouery New World i. 75 In the townes Hall [L in praetorio..urbis], (properlie called Gulpers Court) there hangeth vp that ancient embleme of the order of their Knights.
1812 J. Bigland Beauties Eng. & Wales XVI. 412 A large room, now used as a town's hall.
1998 T. Bevin Havan Split vi. 55 There were probably around forty, or forty-five houses,..a town's hall, a plaza with a well, a church, an outdoor market, and Grandpa's general store.
Town's Husband n. now historical (esp. in Hull) a borough official responsible for keeping accounts, collecting fees, supervising repairs, etc.; cf. husband n. 5a.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > [noun] > one who has charge of or manages money > others
almonera1400
purser-general1633
eleemosynary1656
Town's Husbanda1749
camerlengo1753
purser1814
a1749 G. C. Deering Nottinghamia (1751) 106 Of late there is a new Office established, by the Name of the Town's-Husband, whose Employment is to go about and examine what wants Repairing.
1757 in Notes & Queries (1889) 7 Dec. 447/2 James Mihill, Town's Husband [buried at Beverley].
1795 Hull Advertiser 8 Aug. in Notes & Queries (1889) 21 Dec. 496/1 Wanted by the Corporation of this Town, a proper person for the office of Town's Husband, or Common Officer.
1833 Rep. Select Comm. Munic. Corporations 319 Is there any other fee paid to you as town's husband [at Hull]?
2003 W. H. Greenleaf Much Governed Nation (new ed.) ii. 13 Eighteenth-century Hull where the corporation and the Town's Husband exercised a notable number of functions.
town's money n. now rare the public funds of a town; money belonging to a town.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [noun] > of a sovereign or state > specific town
town's money1491
town box1550
town chest1591
1491 in P. Studer Oak Bk. Southampton (1910) I. 153 (margin) Townes monye in the Coffers and no stallmentt butt by comon Assentte.
c1600 Maldon MS Rec. in Essex Herald 9 May (1905) 7/5 [One of Cade's charges against the authorities was] spending of towne's-money against their lawful preacher.
1777 in T. Gage Hist. Rowley (Mass.) (1840) 257 Voted,..to pay each man three pounds, out of town's money, as advanced pay.
1894 Granite Monthly Sept. 193/1 With a liberal expenditure of town's money two parks have been inaugurated.
1910 Good Housek. Mag. Mar. 298/1 It ain't sense or good business to dump a lot of town's money into a contraption just to help summer sojourners go gaddin' more handy.

Derivatives

ˈtownlike adj. [compare townly adj.]
ΚΠ
1587 J. Higgins Mirour for Magistrates (new ed.) Caracalla f. 106 The townelike life..misliked mee.
1632 J. Vicars tr. Virgil XII Aeneids v. 122 A town-like ship, with treble-oare banks fram'd.
1876 A. Plummer tr. J. J. I. von Döllinger Hippolytus & Callistus ii. 73 All that has any townlike appearance relates to Ostia.
1993 J. M. Blaut Colonizer's Model of World ii. 113 Villages became much larger, almost townlike.
† townslike adj. Obsolete rare
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [adjective]
towna1425
townishc1425
urbane1533
townslike1574
urban1619
townly1822
towny1823
1574 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara Familiar Epist. 481 The good towns-like craftes man [Sp. el official plebeyo] needes no daughter in lawe that can frill and paint hir selfe.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

townv.

Brit. /taʊn/, U.S. /taʊn/
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: town n.
Etymology: < town n.
1. transitive (in passive). Of a place: to be provided or filled with towns. Also in extended use. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > [verb (transitive)] > furnish with towns
town1585
1585 R. Lane Let. 3 Sept. in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1589) iii. 793 The soile is of an huge and vnknowen greatnesse, and very wel peopled and towned.
1633 P. Fletcher Purple Island ii. xv. 20 With many a citie grac't, and fairly town'd.
1640 J. Gower tr. Ovid Festivalls iv. 85 A land..Belov'd of Ceres; plentifully town'd.
1867 H. W. Longfellow tr. Dante Divine Comedy III. viii. 50 That horn of Ausonia, which is towned With Bari, with Gaeta and Catona.
1919 T. S. Moore in W. K. Seymour Misc. of Poetry 87 That land she came from, towned with ruins.
†2. transitive. To make (a village) into a town; to classify as a town. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1896 tr. in Rep. & Trans. Devonshire Assoc. 28 478 A certain abbot of the same place caused the said village..to be towned [L. villam fecit levari] which is now worth £8 a year, which the abbot now holds of the King in chief as a barony.

Derivatives

† towned adj. Obsolete rare (of a village) classified as a town.
ΚΠ
1897 Rep. &. Trans. Devonshire Assoc. 29 458 There were reeves of various kinds..the town-reeve in a ‘towned’ village.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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