The common talk or gossip of the people of a town; the subject or matter of such talk or gossip.
1654–5. Cromwell, Speech to Parl., 22 Jan., 23. If it be not folly in Me to listen to Town-talk, such things have been proposed.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 26 April. All the town-talk is now-a-days of her extravagancies.
1694. Congreve, Double-Dealer, III. i. You’ll ruin me if you take such public Notice of it, it will be a Town-Talk.
1712. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 26 March. The news of the French desiring a cessation of arms … was but town talk.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lv. It was town-talk for at least three days.
1867. Aug. J. E. Wilson, Vashti, xii. Wby should she taboo society, and make herself the town-talk?
