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One who dwells in the country, as distinguished from a townsman or an inhabitant of a city; a rustic; a husbandman or farmer. A simple countryman that brought her figs. Shak.

ion of justice and public affairs; -- called also a shire. See Shire. Every county, every town, every family, was in agitation. Macaulay.

t. -- Court guide, a directory of the names and adresses of the nobility and gentry in a town. -- Court hand, the hand or manner of writing used in records and judicial proceedings. Shak. -- Court lands (Eng. Law), lands kept in demesne, -- that is, for the use of the lord and his family. -- Court marshal, one who…

A county town; -- so called in Virginia and some others of the Southern States. Providence, the county town of Fairfax, is unknown by that name, and passes as Fairfax Court House. Barlett.

A town in the county of Warwick, England. To send to Coventry, to exclude from society; to shut out from social intercourse, as for ungentlemanly conduct. -- Coventry blue, blue thread of a superior dye, made at Coventry, England, and used for embroidery.

e orders or directions of a court, or who gives public notice by loud proclamation; as, a town-crier. He openeth his mouth like a crier. Ecclus. xx. 15.

xcite or reward attention. We took a ramble together to see the curiosities of this great town. Addison. There hath been practiced also a curiosity, to set a tree upon the north side of a wall, and, at a little hieght, to draw it through the wall, etc. Bacon.

through water, mud, or slush; to draggle. Nor, like a puppy [have I] daggled through the town. Pope.

ratio of the number of deaths to the population. At all ages the death rate is higher in towns than in rural districts. Darwin. -- Death rattle, a rattling or gurgling in the throat of a dying person. -- Death's door, the boundary of life; the partition dividing life from death. -- Death stroke, a stroke causing dea…

inst; attack; to maintain against force or argument; to uphold; to guard; as, to defend a town; to defend a cause; to defend character; to defend the absent; -- sometimes followed by from or against; as, to defend one's self from, or against, one's enemies. The lord mayor craves aid . . . to defend the city. Shak. God…

ives, for his delicate life, to the devil went. Piers Plowman. Haarlem is a very delicate town. Evelyn.

A territorial subdivision of Attica (also of modern Greece), corresponding to a township. Jowett (Thucyd).

One who, or that which, demolishes; as, a demolisher of towns.

throw; -- opposed to construction; as, the demolition of a house, of military works, of a town, or of hopes.

representative; a delegate; a vicegerent; as, the deputy of a prince, of a sheriff, of a township, etc. There was then [in the days of Jehoshaphat] no king in Edom; a deputy was king. 1 Kings xxii. 47. God's substitute, His deputy anointed in His sight. Shak.

The state of being destroyed, demolished, ruined, slain, or devastated. This town came to destruction. Chaucer. Thou castedst them down into destruction. Ps. lxxiii. 18.

ine ears Shak. He knew the battle's din afar. Sir W. Scott. The dust and din and steam of town. Tennyson.

oval to; to give one's influence against; to restrain by cold treatment; to discourage. A town meeting was convened to discountenance riot. Bancroft.

Rendered uninhabited. "Dishabited towns." R. Carew.

etc.; to unrig; to strip of walls or outworks; to break down; as, to dismantle a fort, a town, or a ship. A dismantled house, without windows or shutters to keep out the rain. Macaulay.