Forms: 1 tuun, 1–4 tūn, (4–5 tounne), 4–5, Sc. 6– toun, (4–5 ton, tone), 5–6 toune, (5 townne, 6 toen), 5–7 towne, 5– town, (8–9 Sc. toon (= tun)). [OE. tuun, tún m. = OFris., OS., MLG. tûn (MDu. tuun, Da. tuin, LG. tuun, tūn), OHG., MHG. zûn (Ger. zaun); ON. tûn neut. (Norw. dial. tūn farm-yard, older Da. tūn, Sw. dial. tūn, tōn hedge, fence):—OTeut. *tûnoz, -om, cogn. with Celtic dûn in -dūnum, OIr. dûn, W. dīn fortified place, castle, camp. The sense in OHG. was ‘fence, hedge,’ as in Ger. zaun; in mod.Du. and LG. it has both the senses ‘fence or hedge’ and ‘enclosed place, garden.’ In OE. the sense ‘fence, hedge’ does not occur, only that of ‘enclosed place,’ as in sense 1, and its developments in senses 2 and 3, in which it was frequently used to render L. villa. The modern sense 4 is later than the Norman Conquest, and corresponds to F. ville ‘town, city,’ as similarly developed from L. villa ‘farm, country-house.’]
† 1. An enclosed place or piece of ground, an enclosure; a field, garden, yard, court. Obs.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.), 546. Co[ho]rs, tuun.
a. 800. Erfurt Gloss., 281. Cors, tuun.
c. 870. O. E. Chron., an. 867. His lic lið þær on tune.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxvi. 36. Ða cuomon ðe hælend mið him in tun ðe hata gezemani [Lat. villam; Gr. χωρίον; Wycl. toun; Tind., Geneva, 1611, place; Coverd. felde; Cranmer farme place; Rheims village).
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Mark xv. 21. Simonem cireneum cumende of þam tune [Lind. cummende of lond; Rushw. cymende of londe; Lat. de villa; Gr. ἀπʹ ἀγροῦ; Wycf. fro the toun; Tind. oute of the felde; Coverd. from the felde; Gen., Rheims, 1611, out of the countrey]. Ibid., Luke xiv. 18. Ic bohte ænne tun [Lind., Rushw. lond ic bohte; Lat. villain emi; Gr. ἀγρὸν ἠγόρασα; Wycl. a toun; Tind., Coverd. a ferme; 1611 a piece of ground]. Ibid., xv. 15. Ða sende he hine to his tune þæt he heolde his swyn [Lind. on lond his; Lat. in villam suam; Gr. εἰς τοὺς ἀγρούς αὑτοῦ; Wycl. in to his toun; Tind. to the felde; Coverd. into his felde]. Ibid., John iv. 5. Neah þam tune [Lat. juxta prædium; Gr. πλησίον τοῦ χωρίου; Wycl. the manere, gloss or feeld, later vers. the place; Tind. the possession; Coverd. ye pece of londe; Rheims the maner; 1611 the parcell of ground].
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 132. Harewyrt lytelu oftost weaxeþ on tune.
a. 1123. O. E. Chron., an. 1114. And þæt ʓehwær on wudan and on tunan ʓecydde.
1388. Wyclif, Matt. xxii. 5. But thei … wenten forth, oon in to his toun [1382 vyneȝerd; Lat. villam; Gr. ἀγρὸν; Ags. G. tune; Tind. ferme place; Coverd. huszbandrye; 1611 farme], anothir to his marchaundise.
(Cf. also the OE. compounds tûn-cressa garden cress, tûn-melde, Atriplex hortensis; æppel-tûn apple orchard, cyric-tûn churchyard, déor-tûn deer-park, gærs-tûn meadow, líc-tûn graveyard, wyrt-tûn vegetable garden.)
† b. spec. The enclosed land surrounding or belonging to a single dwelling; a farm with its farmhouse (still Sc. dial.); a manor, ‘an estate with a village community in villenage upon it under a lord’s jurisdiction’; the enclosed land of a village community; sometimes also = parish, when this was coextensive with a manor. Obs.
601–4. Laws Ethelbert, c. 17. ʓif man in mannes tun ærest ʓeirnneþ, vi scillingum ʓebete; se þe æfter irneþ, iii scillingas.
972. Charter Eadgar, in Birch, Cart. Sax., III. 586. Þis sind þara feower tuna lond ʓemæra.
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia (1886), IX. 259. And ælcre tilðan timan ðe to tune belimpð.
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 77. Uppe ða chirch-landes, oðer uppe tunes.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 391. Fox is hire to name … Ðe coc & te capun Ȝe feccheð ofte in ðe tun.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxvii. (Machor), 93. He gaf of heritable rycht to godis seruice al þat ton In-to fre possessione.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 22. A man hadde a fermour, as keper of a toun.
1628. Coke, On Litt., § 1. 5. By the name of a towne, Villa, a mannor may passe. Ibid., § 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.
1785. J. Mill, Diary (1889), 75. Some hill towns [= farms] had a good deal of corn on the ground to shear.
2. The house or group of houses or buildings upon this enclosed land; the farmstead or homestead on a farm or holding. Now esp. Sc.
c. 890. trans. Bæda’s Hist., II. xi. [xiv.] (1890), 140. Þes tun [villa] wæs forlæten … & oðer wæs fore þæm ʓetimbred. Ibid., II. xiv. [xvi.] 202. Aslat þa þa tunas ealle ymb þa burʓ onwæʓ.
a. 900. O. E. Martyrol., 9 June, 92. Þa ongan se tun bernan … þa forburnon ealle þara monna hus þa on þæm tune wæron.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. X. 134. Barouns and Burgeis and Bonde men of tounes [MS. U. towne].
c. 1400. Plowman’s Tale, III. 1043. Threshing and dyking fro town to town.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia, I. (1895), 57. They whyche plucked downe fermes and townes of husbandrye.
c. 1689. Depred. Clan Campbell (1816), 42. Taken out of Achingoul … be Lochaber men, ten coues…. Item, be them out of that toun, 30 sheep and goats.
1814. Scott, Wav., ix. Waverley learned … from this colloquy that in Scotland a single house was called a town. Ibid. (1815), Guy M., xxiii. Two or three low thatched houses, placed with their angles to each other, with a great contempt of regularity. This was the farm-steading of Charlie’s Hope, or, in the language of the country, ‘the town.’
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. xlviii. 226, note. In Scotland (where it is pronounced ‘toon’) it still denotes the farmhouse and buildings.
3. A (small) group or cluster of dwellings or buildings; a village or hamlet with little or no local organization. (Often = L. vicus.) Now dial.
In var. Eng. dials., the town is spec. applied to the hamlet or cluster of houses contiguous to the church; more fully the church-town.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.), 557. Conpetum, tuun, þrop.
a. 800. Erfurt Gloss., 307. Conpetum, tuun vel ðrop.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John xxi. 2. Se ðeʓn seðe uæs of Cana ðæm tuune on galilees meʓð.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 54. ʓifta wæron ʓewordene on anum tune ðe is ʓeciʓed Chana.
a. 1067. Charter of Eadweard, in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 203. .x. hyden lond on Waltham, and ðe cherche of ðan seluen.
c. 1200. Ormin, 7016. Þatt tun wass nemmnedd Beþþleæm.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 14790 (Cott.). Þat es þe tun of bethleem.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 478. 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 brother.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 39. In Mon [Anglesey] beeþ þre hondred townes [villas] þre score and þre, and beeþ acounted for þre candredes, þat beeþ þre hundredes.
1483. Cath. Angl., 391/1. A Towne, pagus, pagulus, pagos grece, villa, villula.
1508. Dunbar, Poems, vii. 55. In euery cete, village, and in toune.
1526. Tindale, John xi. 1. Lazarus of Bethania the toune of Mary and her sister Martha.
1576. E. Worsely, Surv. Mannor of Felsted, Essex, 129 (MS.). The highway leading from Felsted towards the town of Leighes.
1731. T. Boston, Mem., vii. (1899), 112. The 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.
1809. Mar. Edgeworth, Absentee, ix. He arrived at a village, or, as it was called, a town, which bore the name of Colambre.
1812. Brackenridge, Views Louisiana (1814), 119. Amongst the Americans, every assemblage of houses, no matter of how small a number, is denominated a town.
1887. Pall Mall G., 19 Aug., 11/1. Wretched villages, misnamed towns, scattered throughout Ireland.
1887. I. R., Lady’s Ranche Life in 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. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. xlviii. 226, note. In parts of eastern England the chief cluster of houses in a parish is still often called ‘the town.’
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Gloss., 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.
4. Now, in general English use, commonly designating an inhabited place larger and more regularly built than a village, and having more complete and independent local government; applied not only to a ‘borough,’ i.e., a corporate town, and a ‘city,’ which is a town of higher rank, but also to an ‘urban district,’ i.e., a non-corporate town having an ‘urban district council’ with powers of rating, paving, and sanitation more extensive than those possessed by a parish council or the administrative body (where such exists) of a village. Sometimes also applied to small inhabited places below the rank of an ‘urban district,’ which are not distinguishable from villages otherwise, perhaps, than by having a periodical market or fair (‘market town’), or by being historically ‘towns.’
The distinction between a small town which is not a municipal borough, and a village, is somewhat indefinite; there are also decayed towns, even municipal boroughs, which are surpassed in population by many villages.
1154. O. E. Chron., an. 1137. § 3 (Laud MS.). Hi læiden ʓæildes o þe tunes æure um wile…. Þa þe uurecce men ne hadden nan more to gyuen, þa ræueden hi & brendon alle the tunes.
c. 1200. Ormin, 8511. Fra land to land, fra tun to tun, Fra wic to wic i tune.
c. 1205. Lay., 14246. Ane burh he arerde muchele & mare … & for swulche gomen Þa tun [Lancaster] hafde þas þreo nomen.
a. 1225. Juliana, 8. & tuhen him ȝont te tun from strete to strete.
c. 1275. Passion, 70, in O. E. Misc., 39. As he com in-to þe bureh so rydinde Þe children of þe tune [Jerusalem] comen syngynde.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 5249. Hii come, & londone, & kaunterbury, & oþer tounes nome.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XI. 138. Sum lugit without the townys In tentis and in palȝeownys.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 7429. Thei dyed thikkere then men dryues gece To chepyng-toun for to selle.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), iv. 30. Joppa … is on of the oldest townes of the world.
1419. Munin. de Melros (Bann. Cl.), 502. All þe landis Tenementis and byggynnis … in þe said Towne of Edynburghe.
1472–3. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 33/2. The Chaunceler and Scolers of the Universite in your Toune of Oxonford.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 7 § 2. And that in all other Cities, Borowes, and Townes … the Maires, Bailiffes, or hede Officers, and Wardeyns to haue like Authoritie. And wher noo Wardeyns be, then the hede Officers or Governours of the same Cities, Borowes and Townes to appoynt certeyn persones … to make serche. Ibid., c. 19 § 10. In Hundredes, Townes Corporate & nott corporate, parisshes & all other places.
1552. Huloet, Towne beynge walled, oppidum. Ibid., Towne incorporate, municipium.
1555. W. Watreman, Fardle Facions, 10. Of Tounes, thei made cities, and of villages, Tounes.
1597. in Maitl. Cl. Misc., I. 89. Within the toune and citie of Glasgw.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xlviii. 39. Constantinopil … Eftir his name he callit the citie syn, Becaus he lovit it best of tounis all.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 497. This is the chiefe Towne of all this Shire.
1628. Coke, On Litt., § 171. 115 b. If a Towne be decayed so as no houses remayne, yet it is a Towne in Lawe…. It cannot bee a Towne in Law, vnlesse it hath, or in time past hath had a Church and celebration of Diuine Seruice…. It appeareth by Littleton, that a Towne is the genus, and a Borough is the species, for … euery Borough is a Towne, but euery Towne is not a Borough.
1649. Bp. Guthrie, Mem. (1702), 80. A Wonder lasts but nine Nights in a Town (as we use to say).
1765. Blackstone, Comm., 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.
1809. Kendall, Trav., I. ii. 12. A collection of houses joining, or nearly joining each other, is the first requisite in the definition of town, though the word be taken in the loosest sense.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 44. The free towns of Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg.
b. Without article, after prepositions and verbs, as in, out of, to town, to leave town, etc.: i.e., the particular town under consideration, or that in or near which the speaker is at the moment; the town with which one has to do, the market-town, the chief town of the district or province, the capital; in England since c. 1700 spec. said of London.
There are earlier uses referring to London, but only as said by persons living there.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2311. And quuan he weren ut tune went, Iosep haueð hem after sent.
13[?]. Cursor M., 3346 (Cott.). On morn wit godds beniscon Was mai rebecca lede o ton [Gött. of þe tun].
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 266. Alle Londoun … liketh wel my wafres… Þere was a carful comune whan no carte come to toune With bake bred fro stretforth.
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 5. Be he in toun [London] oþer out of toun. Ibid. (1431), 275. If he be in towne [Cambridge] and comyth not.
1450. Rolls of Parlt., V. 182/2. The kyng sent for all his Lordes … thenne beyng in Towne [London].
1618. Bolton, Florus, IV. i. (1636), 260. The ambassadours of the Allobroges (at that time, as it hapned, in town [Rome]) were dealt with.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 122. Strangers … as soone as they come to Towne [London], enquire for him first of all.
1645. Evelyn, Diary, 31 Oct. We invited all the English and Scotts in towne [Padua] to a feast.
1648. Commons’ Jrnls., V. 545/1. That a Letter be directed to the Vice Admiral, to desire him to suffer Prince Philip, Brother to the Prince Elector, to come to Town.
1689. in Acts Parlt. Scotl. (1875), XII. 60/2. Þat the macers advertise such as are in towne [Edinburgh] That they be present accordingly.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 2, ¶ 1. When he is in Town, he lives in Soho-Square.
1711. Hearne, Collect. (O. H. S.), III. 127. Dr. Charlett went out of Town [Oxford] on purpose that he might not be present.
1739. Chesterf., Lett. (1792), I. 122. I shall come to town next Saturday.
1770. Foote, Lame Lover, I. Wks. 1799, II. 60. Well known about town.
1791. Gentl. Mag., Jan., 1/1. A friend of mine, who was lately in town, saw many of them in the shop-windows.
1815. Simond, Tour Gt. 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.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxx. A stately relative … who was out of town.
1902. R. Hichens, Londoners, 17. I shall leave town at least by the first of July.
c. spec. as distinct from or contrasted with the country (COUNTRY 5).
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 194. And for she was of toune [v.rr. towne, tounne, town] he profreth meede, For some folk wol ben wonnen for richesse.
1712. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to W. Montagu, 9 Dec. You say I love the town.
1715. Pope, 2nd Ep. Miss Blount, 2. As some fond Virgin, whom her mother’s care Drags from the Town to wholesome 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.
1784. [see COUNTRY 5].
1909. Lloyd George, in Daily News, 30 April, 8. Land in the town seems to be let by the grain as if it was radium.
d. In ME., and later in ballad poetry, etc., often added after the name of a town, in apposition, arch. (Cf. OE. Rome-burh, Lunden-burh, etc.)
13[?]. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 551. Whilom a riche burgeis was, And woned her in Rome toun.
a. 1700[?]. Sir Patrick Spence, i., in Percy Reliques (1845), 20/1. The king sits in Dumferling toune.
a. 1700[?]. K. John & Abbot, ii. Ibid., 167/2. They rode poste … to fair London toune.
1703. Rowe, Ulysses, Prol. 8. Her husband … Left her…, to … battle for a harlot at Troy toun.
1782. Cowper, John Gilpin, i. A trainband captain eke was he Of famous London town.
18[?]. Rossetti (title), Troy Town.
5. As a collective sing. a. The community of a town in its corporate capacity; the corporation; b. The inhabitants of a town, the townspeople; c. spec. the fashionable society of London (or other leading city thought of); ‘society.’ arch.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 334. Þe toþer day on þe morn com þe Brus Roberd, Þe toun wist it beforn, þorgh spies þat þei herd.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, II. 19. So he desirit the toune of Air to se His child with him.
1582. Allen, Martyrd. Campion (1908), 96. All the towne loved him exceedingly.
a. 1616. Beaumont, Lett. to B. Jonson, 50. Wit able enough to justify the Town For three days past!
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, IV. i. ’Tis all the town talks.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 21 June. I find all the town almost going out of town.
1693. Dryden, Persius’ Sat., i. 5. That this vast universal Fool, the Town, Should cry up Labeo’s Stuff, and cry me down.
1713. Swift, Frenzy J. Denny, Wks. 1755, III. I. 144. That vile piece, that’s foisted upon the town for a dramatick poem!
1742. Pope, Dunc., IV. 292. [He], all at once let down, Stunn’d with his giddy Larum half the town.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 405. His Absalom and Achitophel, the greatest satire of modern times, had amazed the town, had made its way … even into rural districts.
d. absol. At Oxford and Cambridge: The civic community or body of citizens or townsmen as distinct from members of the university; esp. in phr. town and gown (often attrib.); cf. GOWN sb. 5.
a. 1647. Pette, in Archæologia, XII. 218. I was forced,… my graces for Bachelor of Arts being passed both in house and town, to abandon the university.
1827. Bristol Mercury & Daily Post, 26 March, 3/3. Immediately a cry of ‘Town and Gown,’ (the usual signal for hostilities,) arose, and all the gown were beaten without mercy.
1828. Sporting Mag., XXI. 423. Parties of five or six, both ‘gown’ and ‘town,’ were parading abreast.
a. 1845. Hood, Lament Toby, xv. Farewell to ‘Town!’ farewell to ‘Gown!’ I’ve quite outgrown the latter.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, II. iv. The battle of Town and Gown was over.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., xi. I wish … to disclaim … all sympathy with town and gown rows.
1912–3. Kelly’s Oxford 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.
6. U.S. A geographical division for local or state government. a. A division of a county, which may contain one or more villages or towns (in sense 4); a township; also, the inhabitants of such a division as a corporate body. (Esp. in the New England states.) b. A municipal corporation, having its own geographical boundaries (as distinct from a.), considered either in reference to its area or as a body politic.
1808. A. Wilson, Poems & Lit. Prose (1876), I. 148. The people here make no distinction between town and township, and travellers frequently asked the driver … ‘What town are we now in?’ when perhaps we were on the top of a miserable barren mountain.
1809. Kendall, Trav., I. ii. 12. In New England … a town is very commonly described as containing two or three villages. Ibid., 13. A town … in Connecticut, and the other parts of New England, is first a district, or geographical subdivision…; secondly, it is a body politic and corporate. Ibid., x. 113. The constitution of the towns appears to be … a mixture of those of the shire, hundred and parish.
1819. Boston Centinel, 31 July (Thornton). The crops of hay in the lower towns were in all parts heavy.
1822. Z. Hawley, Tour [in Ohio], 33 (ibid.). The timber of these towns is beech … and black walnut.
1882. W. D. Howells, in Longm. Mag., I. 42. In New England the ‘town’ is the township, and there are some ‘towns’ in which there is no village at all.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. II. xlviii. 226. The Town is … a rural, not an urban community…. Its population is usually small. Ibid., note. In New England the word ‘town’ is the legal and usual one; in the rest of the country ‘township.’ Ibid., 240. The words ‘town’ and ‘township’ signify [in Illinois, etc.] a territorial division of the county, incorporated for purposes of local government.
1890. Hosmer, Anglo-Sax. Freed., 192. Each Massachusetts town sent a representative to a central assembly at Boston.
1906. W. Churchill, Coniston, I. v. 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.
7. fig. and transf. (from 4). a. Something analogous to a town as being the home of many people.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 75. The ship is a flying town, sell-contained and independent of outside aid.
1898. Kipling, in Daily News, 7 Nov., 5/2. That which was a line has suddenly become a town on the waters.
b. An assemblage of burrows of prairie-dogs, nests of penguins, etc.
1808. Pike, Sources Mississ., II. (1810), 156, note. The Wishtonwish of the Indians, prairie dogs of some travellers … reside on the prairies of Louisiana in towns or villages.
1812. Brackenridge, Views Louisiana (1814), 58. The Prairie dog … lives in burrows, or as they are commonly called towns.
1839. Marryat, Phant. Ship, xviii. These [penguins] were in myriads on some parts of the island, which, from the propinquity of their nests … went by the name of towns.
1859. Horace Greeley, in Buffalo Courier, 20 June, 2/3. I judge that there cannot be less than a hundred square miles of Prairie-Dog towns within the present Buffalo range.
1890. W. P. Lett, in Big Game N. Amer., 470. Danger occasioned by badger-holes and prairie-dog towns.
8. Phrases. (See also 4 b.) a. To come († go) to town, to make one’s appearance, arrive, come in; † to ‘come to stay,’ to become common (obs.). Cf. to come to land (LAND sb. 2 d).
Prob. the original notion was ‘come to our village, come to dwell with us, come to the dwellings of men.’ In later times associated with the later sense of town (4 b).
a. 1000. Menologium (Gr.), 8. Se kalendus cymeð … on þam ylcan dæʓe us to tune.
c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia, VIII. 312/19. Lengten tima … gæð to tune on vii. id’. febr’.
c. 1200. Ormin, 9160. Allse bidell birrþ beon sennd To ȝarrkenn & to greȝȝþenn Onnȝen hiss Laferrd þær þær he Shall cumenn sket to tune.
a. 1275. Prov. Ælfred, 534, in O. E. Misc., 133. Elde cumið to tune mid fele unkeþe costes.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 14277. ‘Crist,’ sco said, ‘es cummen to tun.’
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 349. Folkis … Thankand God … Thair Lord was gane to toun.
1600. Newe Metamorphosis (MS.) (Farmer). This first was court-like, now ’tis come to towne; ’Tis common growne with every country clowne.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, ii. 11. I’ve been quite in the way of babies to-night,… young master’s come to town.
1905. Daily Chron., 11 March, 4/6. This Thrums sketch proved to delighted Londoners that J. M. Barrie had ‘come to town.’
b. Man about town (also formerly young fellow, youth, girl about town), one who is constantly seen at public and private assemblies in ‘town’; one who is in the round of social functions, fashionable dissipations, etc. (cf. d. (a)).
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 94. I was a youth about the Town when he undertook that expedition.
1749. Lady Luxborough, Lett. to Shenstone, 28 Nov. Miss Jenny Hamilton, a pretty girl about town.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xx. I’ll show you forty very dull fellows about town that live by it [authorship] in opulence.
1769. Chesterf., Lett. to Godson, 6 Sept. There are now two sorts of young fellows about Town, who call themselves Bucks and Bloods.
1797. Times, 5 Aug., 2/2. Old Q—, when Lord MARCH, was one of the most fashionable young men about town, and will continue to be so till the end of the century.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxvi. He was quite the man-about-town of the conversation.
1889. W. Roberts, Hist. Eng. Bookselling, 121. Wits, men-about-town, and fashionable notabilities.
c. Man or woman (girl) of the town: one belonging to the shady or ‘fast’ side of town life.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Man o’ th’ Town, a Lew’d Spark, or very Debaushe.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Dial. Dead, Wks. 1730, II. 313. I have been a man of the town … and admitted into the family of the rakehellonians.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xx. The lady was only a woman of the town.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., Man of the town, a rake, a debauchee. Ibid., Woman of the toun, or … of pleasure, a prostitute.
1817–8. Cobbett, Resid. U.S. (1822), 239. Never is there seen in the streets what is called in England, a girl of the town.
d. On the town: (a) in the swing of fashionable life, pleasure, or dissipation; (b) getting a living by prostitution, thieving, or the like; cf. on the streets; (c) chargeable to the parish (dial.). So to come upon the town.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 266, ¶ 2. This Creature is what they call newly come upon the Town.
1727. Gay, Begg. Op., II. iv. I han’t been so long upon the Town.
1819. Metropolis, I. 213. She had got with her a listening novice on town. Ibid., 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.
1842. Egan, Capt. Macheath, J. Flashman (Farmer), Jack long was on the town, a teazer; Could turn his fives to anything, Nap a reader, or filch a ring.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxvi. 333. Prostitutes who had been a long time on the town.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, x. Five-and-twenty years ago the young Earl of Kew came upon the town, which speedily rang with the feats of his Lordship.
e. Town and tower, tower and town: see TOWER sb.1 9 a.
9. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib. passing into adj. use (now usually without hyphen): Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the town (as distinct from some other place or community, esp. the country); that is or lives in towns or the town; urban.
1468. Medulla Gram., Comedia, a toun song.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 160. The towne wiues, whan they go to here Masse, cary with them bokes of Latin prayers.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., Pref. ii. § 3. One of the Towne-Ministers, that saw in what manner the people were bent for the reuocation of Caluine.
1673. Charac. Coffee-house (title-p.), 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.
1702. Steele, Funeral, III. i. 44. She has of a sudden left her Dayry, and sets up for a fine Town-Lady.
1710–1. Examiner, No. 30. Lewdness and intemperance are not of so bad consequences in a town-rake as in a divine.
1753. World, No. 3, ¶ 2. According to the town-acceptation of the term.
1794. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), II. iii. § 2. 35. A neat ornamented, or town coach.
1844. Wardlaw, Lect. Prov. (1869), II. 16. Town missions and country missions.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., Prel. Rem. (1876), 9. These [agricultural communities of ancient Europe] … were mostly small town-communities.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, v. He fought the town-boys.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiv. III. 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.
1887. A. Jenks in Lippincott’s Mag., Aug., 295. These performances were very attractive to old graduates and town-people.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 842. It is safer to take a lower standard for the average town inhabitant.
b. attrib. in sense ‘of or belonging to a town as a community or place,’ as town armory, back, bell, charge, church, clock, close, dike, drummer, father, field, folk, green, herd, loan (LOAN sb.2 2), mead, moor, mote (MOOT sb.1 2), piper, plate (PLATE sb. 17), pump, relief, seal, stocks, swineherd, wait, watch, wharf.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., III. ii. 47. An olde rusty sword tane out of the *Towne Armory.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., II. 475/2. All their horsemen issued out of the *towne backe with certayne footemen.
1483. Cely Papers (Camden), 137. To be redy in harnesse as sone as the *towne bell rynggyth.
1877. Green, Hist. Eng. People, I. 298. Its citizens mustered at the call of the town-bell at Saint Paul’s.
1619. Min. Archdeaconry of Colchester, lf. 104 b (MS.). The some of viij d. toward a rate for *towne charge which the Churchwardens of Alresford haue layd out.
[1045. Will of Thurstan, in Thorpe, Charters, 572. Þat [lond] … after here bothere day into þe *tunkirke, and þo men fre.]
1888. P. Schaff, Hist. Chr. Ch., VI. xxvii. 136. He preached both in the Convent and in the town-church.
1779. Mirror, No. 41, ¶ 1. He … had been regulating his watch by our *town-clock.
1716. Addison, Drummer, I. i. I verily believe I saw him last night in the *Town-close.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Jan., 10. The horses, cattle, sheep, and swine … are not to be suffered to go loose within *town-dikes.
1872. C. Gibbon, For the King, i. Bauldy Dodholm, the *town-drummer, at their head.
1926. Pensacola Jrnl. 25 April, 2nd sect., 12/3. Bozo Toughboy used to be the *town drunk and could be seen most any old night making love to a telephone pole about 9 o’clock.
1892. Pall Mall G., 15 June, 6/1. At the station the town-fathers [cf. FATHER sb. 10) offered her some refreshments.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 1582. Þo wende vorb be “loun folc.
1907. ‘J. Halsham,’ Lonewood Corner, 33. Town-folk foundered in these drenched wood-paths.
1641. N. Riding Rec., 212. A yeoman presented for an encroachment on the *towne-greene by building a barn to the damage of the inhabitants.
1822. Galt, Provost, xxxvii. Tammy Tout, the *town-herd.
1812. W. Tennant, Anster F., I. lv. Hobbling in each *town-loan in awkward guise.
1822. Galt, Provost, xlvi. A considerable portion of the *town moor.
1879. Green, Read. Eng. Hist., xiv. 67. The burgesses gathered in *town-mote when the bell swung out from St. Paul’s.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3729/4. A *Town-plate of about 15l. value will be Run for at the same Place.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, xxi. 171. For *town-relief the grieving man applied, And begg’d with tears, what some with scorn denied.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., Pref. ii. § 5. By common consent of their whole Senate, and that under their *Towne-Seale.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., ii. To get your legs made acquainted with the *town-stocks. Ibid. (1825), Betrothed, vii. He blows like a *town swineherd.
a. 1805. A. Carlyle, Autobiog. (1860), 75. His band … consisted of two dancing-school fiddlers and the *town-waits.
1560. Rolland, Seven Sages, 73. Gif I be heir now with the *toun watche found.
1531. Lett. & Pap. Hen. VIII., V. 184. Caryng of rubys out of the towne to the *towne wharffis.
c. objective and obj. genitive, as town-builder, -taker; -destroying, -frequenting, -going, -keeping, -loving, -taking sbs. and adjs.; see also TOWN-PLANNING; instrumental, etc., as town-dotted, -flanked, -girdled, -sick, -stained adjs.; locative, similative, etc., as town-bred, -cured, -imprisoned, -killed, -like, -looking, -pent, -spent, -tied, -trained adjs.; see also TOWN-BORN, TOWN-DWELLER.
1685. Bowles, Theocritus’ Idyllium, xx. 43, in Dryden’s Misc., II. 390. How nice these *Town-bred Women are, how vain!
1869. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 396. Smart, active fellows, but thoroughly town-bred.
1905. Daily News, 14 Jan., 4. Painter of sea and shore and *town-flanked river.
1895. Athenæum, 27 April, 530/2. The Danes were a *town-frequenting people.
1812. W. Tennant, Anster F., III. xxiv. Fife’s *town-girdled shire.
1838. Mary Howitt, Birds & Fl., Sunshine, i. *Town-imprisoned 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.
1899. Q. Rev., Oct., 480. *Town-killed meat is a diminishing element.
c. 1000. Ælfric’s Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 127/15. Comedia, racu, *tunlic spæc.
1876. A. Plummer, trans. Döllinger’s Hippolytus, ii. 73. All that has any townlike appearance relates to Ostia.
1849. J. Forbes, Physic. Holiday, v. (1850), 47. Waldshut is a neater and more *town-looking place than we had yet passed through.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., cli. The *Towne-pent Rutters, willingly enlarge Their Quarters.
1840. T. A. Trollope, Summ. Brittany, I. 71. As enchanting a cottage … as *town-sick mortal ever dreamed of.
1654. trans. Scudery’s Curia Pol., 5. That antient Captaine, which the Greekes stiled the *Towntaker.
1849. J. Forbes, Physic. Holiday, i. (1850), 5. That … I may induce some of my *town-tied friends to do as I have done.
a. 1845. Hood, Ode Sir Andrew Agnew. v.
| Suppose a poor *town-weary sallow elf | |
| At Primrose-hill would renovate himself. |
10. Special combs.: † town-adjutant, formerly, a garrison officer, ranking as lieutenant, charged with certain routine duties; cf. TOWN-MAJOR; town-bound a., (a) bound or confined to town; (b) townward bound; town-box, the town chest; the public funds of a town; town-bull, a bull formerly kept in turn by the cow-keepers of a village; hence fig. of a man; town-bushel, a local standard bushel measure; cf. BUSHEL sb.1 1; † town-child, a child born in the town (where a school is founded, and thus sometimes entitled to be a free schalar); town-council, the elective deliberative and administrative body of a town: cf. COUNCIL 10; hence town-councillor, a member of a town-council; town-crier, a public crier; = CRIER 2 b; town-cross, the market cross of a town; town-dab (local), the lemon-sole; town-foot, the lower end of a town or village; town-guard, (a) Sc. Hist., the military or quasi-military guard of a town; (b) the guard policing a garrison-town; also attrib.; town-head, the upper end of a town or village; † town-husband (local): see quot.; town-life, life in a town; spec. the social life of a town; town-liver, one who lives in a town; town-living, town-life; also an ecclesiastical benefice in a town (LIVING vbl. sb. 5); town-mouse, fig. a dweller in a town, esp. as unfamiliar with country life (in allusion to Æsop’s fable); town-officer, (a) an officer (of excise) posted in a town; (b) in New England, a selectman; (c) Sc. an officer charged with keeping public order (cf. TOWN-MAJOR, town-guard); town-park: see PARK sb. 3 a; also attrib.; town-piece [PIECE sb. 13], a token issued by or current in a town; town-place (dial.): see quots.; town-plat, town-plot (U.S.), a plan of a township: cf. PLAT sb.3 2, PLOT sb. 3; town-reeve (now Hist.), the bailiff or steward of a tún; town-row, the sequence of houses in a town, or of homesteads in a parish or manor; also fig. the roll of townsmen: see quots. and cf. HOUSE-ROW; † town-side, the land close beside a town; town-site, the site of a town; spec. in U.S. and Canada, a tract of land set apart by legal authority to be occupied by a town, and (usually) surveyed and laid out with streets, etc.; town-skip, a jocular name for a city urchin; town-taking, the taking of a town; hence town-taking day at Hull, the anniversary of the day on which that city was secured for William of Orange; town-tallow, English, as distinct from continental tallow; † town-top, a whipping-top kept for public use: = parish-top (PARISH sb. 7); town-way, the way to the town; town-weed, a name for Dog’s Mercury; † town-widow, ? a widow supported by public charity; town-woman, a woman of the town, a prostitute. See also TOWN BOOK, -CLERK, -GATE, HALL, etc.
1737. *Town-Adjutant [see TOWN-MAJOR].
1801. Brit. Mil. Libr., II. s.v., The Town-Adjutant is an assistant to the Town-Major.
1858. A. Macmillan, Lett. (1908), 3. Poor *town-bound mechanics and shopmen.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 17 Oct., 7/1. There was a breakdown in the Town-bound trams at Balham.
1659. Gauden, Tears Ch., **ij. Upon the confiscation of them to their *Town-box or Exchequer.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. ii. 172. A Kinswoman of my Masters…. Euen such Kin, as the Parish Heyfors are to the *Towne-Bull?
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Bannier, Taureau bannier, a common, or town, bull.
1709. Brit. Apollo, II. No. 55. 2/2. As dull as a Dormouse at hom, but a vary toun Bull abroad.
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T. (1841), 136. As the *town-bushel is the standard both to measure corn and other bushels by.
1886. Dict. Nat. Biog., VIII. 277/1. Entered at Christ’s Hospital, probably as a *‘town child’ or ‘free scholar.’
1681. Acts Parlt. 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., 75, note. Each township is managed by a town-council.
1851, 1863. [see COUNCIL 10].
1874. Green, Short Hist., iv. § 4. 188. Their merchant-gild … acted, in fact, pretty much the same part as a town-council of to-day.
1850. J. Wilson, Annals of Hawick, an. 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.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 4. I had as liue the *Town-Cryer had spoke my Lines.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, II. lix. 166. Her secret had been published, as it were, by the town-crier.
1836. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, II. 222. [Lemon, or Smooth Dab] is taken on the Sussex coast, where it is known by the name of *Town-Dab.
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., I. 107. To raise, for the defence of the city [Edinburgh], a corps of no fewer than 126 men,… which is called the *town-guard.
1811. Gen. Regul. & Ord. 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. Scott, Hrt. Midl., v[i]. There was a sentinel 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.
1905. Blackw. Mag., July, 100. Not far from the Tolbooth stood the Town Guard House.
1847–78. Halliwell, *Town-husband, an officer of a parish who collects the moneys from the parents of illegitimate children for the maintenance of the latter. East.
1693. Humours 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.
1620. E. Blount, Horæ Subs., 153. Riding, Shooting,… some *towne-liuers, sometimes make hard shiit to practise.
1832. J. J. Blunt, Sk. Reform. 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.
1852. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. iii. Here’s Arthur, a regular young *town-mouse with a natural taste for the woods.
1887. Ld. Churchill in Times (weekly ed.), 24 June, 9/1. What I shall call a town mouse like myself.
1737. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. (ed. 33), 84. Chief Examiner of *Town-Officers Books for London Brewery.
a. 1817. T. Dwight, Trav. New Eng. (1821), I. 243. On the refusal, death, or removal, of a Town-Officer, a meeting is to be holden for … choosing another.
1864. A. McKay, Hist. Kilmarnock (1880), 235. The procession was headed by Mr. Paton, town-officer, on a gallant charger.
1870. Act 33–4 Vict., c. 46 § 15. Any demesne land, or any holding ordinarily termed *‘townparks’ adjoining or near to any city or town.
1887. Act 50–1 Vict., c. 33 § 9. A holding shall not be deemed to constitute a town park, though within the definition of the expression ‘Town parks,’… if it is let and used as an ordinary agricultural farm.
1887. in Pall Mall G., 24 March, 13/2. To secure the just rights of the town park holders.
1805. Brathwait’s Barnabees Jrnl., Introd. (1818), 42. A Harrington was a *town piece, tradesman’s token, or other small coin current in the early part of the seventeenth century.
1787. Grose, Provinc. Gloss., *Town-place, a farm-yard. Cornw.
1867. R. S. Hawker, Prose Wks. (1893), 109. There dwelt in scattered villages, or town-places…, the bold and hardy Keltic people.
1880. Couch, E. Cornw. Words, Town, Town-place, applied to the smallest hamlet, and even to a farm-yard.
a. 1817. T. Dwight, Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821), II. 335. The *town-plat is originally distributed into lots, containing from two to ten acres.
1714. in Hist. Northfield, Mass. (1875), 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.
c. 890. trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. xi. [x.] (1890), 416. Þa onfoeng hio se *tunʓerefa.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke xvi. 18. Ða herede se hlaford þære unrihtwisness tunʓerefan.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. 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.
1610. Bp. Hall, Apol. Brownists, § 52. To bee ranged in the same *Towne-rowes, with Iewes, Arrians, Anabaptists.
1825. Jamieson, Toun-raw, used to denote the privileges of a Town-ship. To thraw one’s self out o’ a toun-raw, to forfeit the privileges enjoyed in a small community.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., s.v. Town-row, By Town-row, or by House-row, was the term for the old plan for keeping men off the parish when work was scarce, by finding them so many days’ work at each farm in turn.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 10. If it be very ranke grounde, as is mnoche at euery *towne syde, where catel doth resort.
1657. W. Coles, Adam in Eden, cxxxi. The fifth groweth … by hedge sides and path wayes, in fields and town-sides.
1872. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 170. The Silver State Mining Company … have located a *town-site—Crystal City …—on the old Salt Lake route.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 445. The improvement of town-sites.
1896. Wrenn, in Critic (U.S.), 31 Oct., 270/1. We have made a plan of Trilby Townsite, Pasco Co., Fl[orid]a.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxvi. ‘Well, young *townskip,’ said Sam, ‘how ’s mother?’
1788. G. Hadley, Hist. Kingston-upon-Hull, xxi. 277. Thus by the spirited conduct of the Protestant officers, was Hull preserved, on the 4th of December, 1688; which is still observed as a holiday, under the appellation of *Town Taking Day.
1866. J. J. Sheahan, Hist. Hull (ed. 2), 188. The town, fort, and citadel, were now easily secured; and the anniversary of this event was long celebrated at Hull by the name of ‘The Town-taking Day.’
1912. Times, 19 Dec., 20/4. To-day’s ‘Market Letter’ quotes—*town tallow, 33s. 6d. per cwt.
1623–33. Fletcher & Shirley, Night-Walker, I. iii. He … dances like a *town-top, and reels and hobbles.
1670. Evelyn, Sylva, xx. 92. For the Turner, Kyele-pins, great Town-Topps.
a. 1780. Blackstone, Note on Shaks.’s Twel. N., I. iii. 44. To sleep like a town-top.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. i. 7. Euans. Which way haue you look’d…? Sim. … Euery way but the *Towne-way.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 3. Perennial or Dog’s Mercury…. From the growth of the plant in towns and town gardens, it is sometimes called *Town-weed.
1632. Brome, North. Lasse, I. i. [She] has been the *Town-widow these Three years.
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, II. i. What! you would have her as impudent as yourself?… a mere notorious *town-woman?
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 260, ¶ 11. To regard every Town-Woman as a particular Kind of Siren.
II. Combinations with town’s, as townschildren, townsfolk, town’s-hall, town’s-piper; town’s-bairn, a native of the (or one’s own) town (Sc.); so town’s-boy, town’s-fellow, in similar sense; † town’s husband, obs. title of a borough official having charge of the accounts, etc.: cf. HUSBAND sb. 4; † town’s-like († towneslike) a., townish, townly; town’s-money, the public funds of a town; townswoman, a woman inhabitant of a town; with possessive, a woman of the same town, See also town’s-book (Sc. townis buk) s.v. TOWN BOOK, town’s-end s.v. TOWN-END, TOWNSMAN, TOWNSPEOPLE.
1808. J. Mayne, Siller Gun, III. xvi. M’Ghee, our ain *town’s-bairn.
1822. Scott, Nigel, iii. He was a kindly Scot himsell, and, what is more, a town’s-bairn o’ the gude town.
1764. Mem. G. Psalmanazar, 90. Having acquainted four or five of our clan that were my *townsboys with my design.
1857. Gladstone, in Westm. Gaz., 20 May (1898), 3/3. [Mr. Gladstone gave an address to the assembled pupils in the large lecture-hall, and invented a new phrase by addressing us as] ‘fellow townsboys.’
1837. Sir F. Palgrave, Merch. & Friar, i. (1844), 23. He found them in the yard, where they were absolutely beset by townsmen, townswomen, and *townschildren.
1906. Academy, 7 April, 328/1. Townschildren and nurses are often woefully ignorant on the subject of edible berries.
1850. Allingham, Poems, Dream, ii. On they passed,… *Townsfellows all from first to last.
1737. Swift, Lett. to Richardson, 30 April. That the *townsfolks and tenants of the estate round Colrane would be content to double the rent.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Berkeley the Banker, I. i. The new banker … could not know so much of the characters of the townsfolks as he who had lived among them.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxvii. 653. Some common market in which the agent for the townsfolk purchased country produce.
1812. J. Bigland, Beauties Eng. & Wales, XVI. 412. A large room, now used as a *town’s hall.
1757. in N. & Q., 7th Ser. VIII. 447/2. James Mihill, *Town’s Husband [buried at Beverley].
1795. Hull Advertiser, 8 Aug., ibid. 496/1. Wanted by the Corporation of this Town, a proper person for the office of Town’s Husband, or Common Officer.
1833. [see HUSBAND sb. 4].
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep., 296. The good *towneslike craftsman, needes no daughter in lawe that can fril and paint hirselfe.
c. 1600. Maldon MS. Records, 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.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d, I. (1827), 7. The *town’s piper, wi’ a blatter.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., II. 73. And this … is one of my *Towns-Women.
1834. H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., xx. (1857), 292. Well-known resorts of his townswomen.
1837. [see townschildren above].
Hence (nonce-wds.) Towneen [with Irish dim. suffix], Townette, Townikin (after G. städtchen), diminutives of town; Townhood, the condition or status of a town.
1893. J. A. Barry, S. Brown’s Bunyip, etc., 120. An’ thin … Jillibeejee is as ructious a *towneen as is on God’s earth.
1839. Lady Lytton, Cheveley (ed. 2), II. i. 5. Though not quite a town, it was something more than a village: the French call those mule-like domiciles, between a house and a bandbox, maisonnettes, and I don’t see why Blichingly should not be called a *townette.
1880. J. B. Harwood, Yng. Ld. Penrith, xiii. It would be unreasonable to expect a tiny townette such as Ireport to engage as the chief of its police a man of tact as well as energy.
1865. E. Burritt, Walk Land’s End, 203. The first centuries of its *townhood … mellow off under the horizon of the past.
1891. Kate Field, Washington, IV. 383/1. At the time of my visit, L—— had just attained the dignity of townhood.
1863. H. Mayhew, Germ. Life & Mann. (1864), I. 5. The little village … lying far away on the moors … from which the *townikin … is said to derive its name.
