Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A man who is a resident of a town.
  • noun A man who is a fellow resident of one's town.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An inhabitant of a town.
  • noun A fellow-inhabitant of a town; a fellow-citizen.
  • noun A town officer now called a selectman.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An inhabitant of a town; one of the same town with another.
  • noun A selectman, in New England. See Selectman.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a man who is a resident of a town, especially of one's own town

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person from the same town as yourself
  • noun a resident of a town or city

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

towns +‎ man

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Examples

  • The Secretary of State, our honored townsman, is stabbed as he lies helpless upon a bed of pain, his sons and defenders are disabled, the Chief of all is slain, and the nation cries out in agony!

    Character and Death of Abraham Lincoln 1865

  • In Killaloe, where a bishop might be seen walking about every day, the mitred dignitary of the Church, though much loved, was thought of, I fear, but lightly; whereas a Cabinet Minister coming to stay in the house of a townsman was a thing to be wondered at, to be talked about, to be afraid of, to be a fruitful source of conversation for a year to come.

    Phineas Finn 2004

  • They startled contemporaries by their radicalism, and their conduct gives the lie to our preconceived idea that a townsman is a man of peace.

    Medieval Europe 1901

  • In Killaloe, where a bishop might be seen walking about every day, the mitred dignitary of the Church, though much loved, was thought of, I fear, but lightly; whereas a Cabinet Minister coming to stay in the house of a townsman was a thing to be wondered at, to be talked about, to be afraid of, to be a fruitful source of conversation for a year to come.

    Phineas Finn Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882 1869

  • In Killaloe, where a bishop might be seen walking about every day, the mitred dignitary of the Church, though much loved, was thought of, I fear, but lightly; whereas a Cabinet Minister coming to stay in the house of a townsman was a thing to be wondered at, to be talked about, to be afraid of, to be a fruitful source of conversation for a year to come.

    Phineas Finn 1867

  • Cabinet Minister coming to stay in the house of a townsman was a thing to be wondered at, to be talked about, to be afraid of, to be

    Phineas Finn The Irish Member Anthony Trollope 1848

  • "countryman, rustic, clown, paysan, villager," still signify a rude and untaught person, as opposed to the words "townsman" and "citizen".

    Selections From the Works of John Ruskin John Ruskin 1859

  • The soldier that looks up there knows that that's protecting him, the townsman knows that that's protecting him, the Taliban knows that that might be looking at him.

    Push on to protect new troops from IEDs 2010

  • Mr Loffts Letter will tell how Nats piece go on; and Isaac can tell you more, and can, if he likes, tell your townsman Reynolds that he is an impudent dog to attempt to father verses that he never wrote.

    Letter 120 2009

  • A thankless role of a zealous townsman who whips up religious fervor and negative sentiment against Grimes, Bob Boles is far less showy than Mrs. Sedley, a character who serves a similar function but receives much more attention.

    Crazy About the Boy 2009

Comments

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  • This word was used in "The Three Lives Of Thomasina."

    September 1, 2012