Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TOWN, n. [Sax. tun; W. din, dinas, a fortified hill, a fort; Gaelic, dun; Sax. dun, dune, a hill, whence downs. The Sax. tun signifies an inclosure, a garden, a village, a town, and tynan is to shut, to make fast; G. zaun, a hedge; D. tun, a garden. If the original word signified a hill, the sense is a mass or collection. But probably the original word signified fortified, and the rude fortifications of uncivilized men were formed with hedges and stakes; hence also a garden. See Garden and Tun. Sax. leactune, a garden, that is, leek-town, an inclosure for leeks, that is plants. This shows that the primary sense of town is an inclosure for defense.]

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. Josh. ii. A town that hath gates and bars. 1 Sam. xxiii.
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. Johnson. A town, in modern times, is generally without walls, which is the circumstance that usually distinguishes it from a city. Cyc. 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. New England. Chapman.
5. In popular usage, in America, a township; the whole territory within certain limits.
6. In England, the court end of London. Pope.
7. The inhabitants of the metropolis. Pope.
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.