TOWN, n.
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 .
A town that hath gates and bars. 1 Samuel 23 .
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.