Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A citizen of a town or borough.
- noun A comfortable or complacent member of the middle class.
- noun A member of the mercantile class of a medieval European city.
- noun A citizen of a medieval European city.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An inhabitant of a burgh or borough, who enjoys the privileges of the borough of which he is a freeman; hence, any citizen of a borough or town.
- noun One of a body of Presbyterians in Scotland, constituting one of the divisions of the early Secession Church.
- noun In South Africa, a citizen of the former Transvaal Republic or of the Orange Free State.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A freeman of a burgh or borough, entitled to enjoy the privileges of the place; any inhabitant of a borough.
- noun (Eccl. Hist.) A member of that party, among the Scotch seceders, which asserted the lawfulness of the burgess oath (in which burgesses profess “the true religion professed within the realm”), the opposite party being called
antiburghers .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
citizen of aborough or town, especially one belonging tomiddle class .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a member of the middle class
- noun a citizen of an English borough
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Jewish population, the so-called burgher estate, [1] consisting of petty artisans and those impoverished tradesmen who could not afford to enrol in the mercantile guilds, though there are cases on record where poor
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II From the death of Alexander I. until the death of Alexander III. (1825-1894) I. [Translator] Friedlaender 1900
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In times of peace the citizen of the Boer republics was called a burgher, and when he took up arms and went to war he received no special title to distinguish him from the man who remained at home.
With the Boer Forces Howard C. Hillegas 1895
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It was not within the walls of his own house alone that the burgher might be a man of importance.
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His 'burgher's brief,' as a citizen of St. Bartholomew, is now in my possession.
Jack in the Forecastle or, Incidents in the Early Life of Hawser Martingale John Sherburne Sleeper
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Therefore every sailor belonging to those islands is provided with a document, called a 'burgher's brief,' which, like an American protection, gives a minute description of the person of the bearer, and is signed and sealed by the official authorities.
Jack in the Forecastle or, Incidents in the Early Life of Hawser Martingale John Sherburne Sleeper
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In point of fact the ambitions and hypocrisies, pretences and prejudices of the Cingalese "burgher" with the tell-tale finger-nails are merely those of Bristol or Amsterdam evolved under Colonial conditions.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, June 27, 1917 Various 1898
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Old men are now living who have not forgotten those days when all distinctions vanished, when the only name heard was "burgher," and when the skeptical and daring favorites of the people obtained seats in the national assembly.
History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology 1868
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Once you are from Pittsburgh, you've got that 'burgher' in you.
chron.com Chronicle 2011
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a "burgher" ( "townsman") -- a soldier, appointed to learn that profession that he may guard the walls -- the exact reverse of _our_ notion of a burgher.
The Crown of Wild Olive also Munera Pulveris; Pre-Raphaelitism; Aratra Pentelici; The Ethics of the Dust; Fiction, Fair and Foul; The Elements of Drawing John Ruskin 1859
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Painted just before Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam from Leiden, it depicts an eminent local burgher, clad in dark robes and rising up majestically against a twilight background.
Two Complementary Quests James Gardner 2011
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