arch. Forms: see BOROUGH. [f. BOROUGH + TOWN. Cf. OE. burhtún enclosure surrounding a castle (as in the place-name Burton).]

1

  A town that is a borough. Still sometimes applied to Irish municipal boroughs. Cf. BURROWS-TOWN (Sc.).

2

  [c. 1000.  Woman’s Lament, 31 (Gr.). Sindon burʓtunas brerum beweaxne.]

3

  1382.  Wyclif, Joshua vii. 2. Of the burȝtown [1388 the citee] Bethel.

4

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 112. Hit ys noȝt semly … in cyte ne in borwton Þat vsurers oþer regratours … Be fraunchised for a free man.

5

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxliii. 288. Thurgh every Cyte and good Burgh tounes in Englond.

6

1601.  Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 88. One Borough Towne of Romane Citizens.

7

a. 1674.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. I. 67. Edenborough … was but a Burrough Town within the Diocess of Saint Andrews.

8

1839.  Capper, Topogr. Dict., 1052. Wexford, a seaport … shire, assize, and borough town.

9