King James Bible Dictionary

See Cities
Cities

TOWN, noun

1. Originally, a walled or fortified place; a collection of houses inclosed with walls, hedges or pickets for safety. Rahab's house was on the town wall. Joshua 2:15.

A town that hath gates and bars. 1 Samuel 23:7.

2. Any collection of houses, larger than a village. In this use the word is very indefinite, and a town may consist of twenty houses, or of twenty thousand.

3. In England, any number of houses to which belongs a regular market, and which is not a city or the see of a bishop.

A town in modern times, is generally without walls, which is the circumstance that usually distinguishes it from a city.

In the United States, the circumstance that distinguishes a town from a city, is generally that a city is incorporated with special privileges, and a town is not. But a city is often called a town

4. The inhabitants of a town The town voted to send two representatives to the legislature, or they voted to lay a tax for repairing the highways.

5. In popular usage, in America, a township; the whole territory within certain limits.

6. In England, the court end of London.

7. The inhabitants of the metropolis.

8. The metropolis. The gentleman lives in town in winter; in summer he lives in the country. The same form of expression is used in regard to other populous towns.

TOWN'-CLERK, noun [town and clerk.] An officer who keeps the records of a town and enters all its official proceedings.

Acts 19:35

the title ascribed in our version to the magistrate at Ephesus who appeased the mob in the theatre at the time of the tumult excited by Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen. (Acts 19:35) The original service of this class of men was to record the laws and decrees of the state, and to read them in public.

TOWN-CRI'ER, noun [town and cry.] A public crier; one who makes proclamation.

TOWN'-HOUSE, noun [town and house.] The house where the public business of the town is transacted by the inhabitants in legal meeting.

1. A house in town; in opposition to a house in the country.

TOWN'ISH, adjective Pertaining to the inhabitants of a town; like the town.

TOWN'LESS, adjective Having no town.

TOWN'SHIP, noun The district or territory of a town. In New England, the states are divided into townships of five, six, seven, or perhaps ten miles square, and the inhabitants of such townships are invested with certain powers for regulating their own affairs, such as repairing roads, providing for the poor, etc.

TOWNS'MAN, noun [town and man.] An inhabitant of a place; or one of the same town with another.

1. A selectman; an officer of the town in New England, who assists in managing the affairs of the town. [See Selectmen.]

TOWN'-TALK, noun [town and talk.] The common talk of a place, or the subject of common conversation.