town

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A population center that is larger than a village and smaller than a city.
2. n. A territorial and political unit governed by a town meeting, especially in New England.
3. n. Informal A city: New York is a big town.
4. n. Chiefly British A rural village that has a market or fair periodically.
5. n. The residents of a town: The whole town was upset at the news.
6. n. An area that is more densely populated or developed than the surrounding area: going into town to shop.
7. n. The residents of a community in which a university or college is located, as opposed to the students and faculty: a dispute pitting town against gown.
8. n. A group of prairie dog burrows.
9. idiom. on the town Informal In spirited pursuit of the entertainment offered by a town or city.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An inclosure; a collection of houses inclosed by a hedge, palisade, or wall for safety; a walled or fortified place.
2. n. Any collection of houses larger than a village; in a general sense, a city or borough: as, London town; within a mile of Edinburgh town: often opposed to country, in which use it is usually preceded by the definite article. It is frequently applied absolutely, and without the proper name of the place, to a metropolis or county town, or to the particular city in which or in the vicinity of which the speaker or writer is; as, to go to town; to be in town—London being in many cases implied by English writers.
3. n. A large assemblage of adjoining or nearly adjoining houses, to which a market is usually incident, and which is not a city or bishop's see.
4. n. A tithing; a vill; a subdivision of a county, as a parish is a subdivision of a diocese.
5. n. The body of persons resident in a town or city; the townspeople: with the.
6. n. In legal usage in the United States:
7. n. In many of the States, one of the several subdivisions into which each county is divided, more accurately called, in the New England States and some others, township.
8. n. In most of the States, the corporation, or quasi corporation, composed of the inhabitants of one of such subdivisions, in some States designated by law as a township or incorporated township or township organization.
9. n. In a few of the States, a municipal corporation (not formed of one of the subdivisions of a county, but having its own boundaries like a city) with less elaborate organization and powers than a city. The word town is popularly used both in those senses, and also in the sense of ‘a collection of dwellings,’ which is characteristic of most towns. Thus, the name of a town, such as Famington, serves to indicate, according to the context, either the geographical area, as in the phrase “the boundaries of the town” (indicated on maps by a light or dotted line), or the body politic, as in speaking of the town and county highways respectively, or the central settlement from which distances are usually measured, as on the sign-boards. When used in the general sense of a densely populated community, the boundaries are usually not identical with those of any primary division of the county, but include only the space occupied by agglomerated houses.
10. n. A farm or farmstead; a farm-house with its connected buildings.
11. n. An officer of a parish who collects moneys from the parents of illegitimate children for the maintenance of the latter.
12. n. Synonyms and
13. n. Hamlet, Village, Town, City. A hamlet is a group of houses smaller than a village. The use of the other words in the United Kingdom is generally more precise than it is in the United States, but all are used more or less loosely. A village may have a church, but has generally no market; a town has both, and is frequently incorporated; a city is a corporate town, and is or has formerly been the see of a bishop, with a cathedral. In the United States a village is smaller than a town, and a town usually smaller than a city; there are incorporated villages as well as cities. Some places incorporated as cities are smaller than many that have only a town organization.
14. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a town; urban: as, town life; town manners.
15. The town prison; a bridewell.
16. A poorhouse.
17. A house or mansion in town, as distinguished from a country residence.

Wiktionary

1. n. A settlement; an area with residential districts, shops and amenities, and its own local government; especially one larger than a village and smaller than a city.
2. n. US Any more urbanized center than the place of reference.
3. n. UK, historical A rural settlement in which a market was held at least once a week.
4. n. The residents (as opposed to gown: the students, faculty, etc.) of a community which is the site of a university.
5. n. colloquial Used to refer to a town or similar entity under discussion.
6. n. law A municipal organization, such as a corporation, defined by the laws of the entity of which it is a part.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Formerly: (a) An inclosure which surrounded the mere homestead or dwelling of the lord of the manor. [Obs.] (b) The whole of the land which constituted the domain. [Obs.] (c) A collection of houses inclosed by fences or walls.
2. n. engraving Any number or collection of houses to which belongs a regular market, and which is not a city or the see of a bishop.
3. n. Any collection of houses larger than a village, and not incorporated as a city; also, loosely, any large, closely populated place, whether incorporated or not, in distinction from the country, or from rural communities.
4. n. The body of inhabitants resident in a town.
5. n. United States A township; the whole territory within certain limits, less than those of a country.
6. n. The court end of London; -- commonly with the.
7. n. The metropolis or its inhabitants.
8. n. Prov. Eng. & Scot. A farm or farmstead; also, a court or farmyard.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an administrative division of a county
2. n. United States architect who was noted for his design and construction of truss bridges (1784-1844)
3. n. an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city
4. n. the people living in a municipality smaller than a city