suburb

[suhb-urb]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR suburb ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a district lying immediately outside a city or town, especially a smaller residential community.

the suburbs, the area composed of such districts.

an outlying part.

Origin of suburb

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin suburbium, equivalent to sub- sub- + urb(s) city + -ium -ium

Related formssub·urbed, adjectiveun·sub·urbed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for suburb

environs, hinterland, outskirts, countryside, village, outpost, suburbia, country, fringe, hamlet, purlieu, precinct, slub, burb

Examples from the Web for suburb

Contemporary Examples of suburb

By September, he was flashing a thumbs-up to assembled fans as he walked into court in a Barcelona suburb.
Is Soccer Great Lionel Messi Corrupt?
Jack Holmes
December 8, 2014
On a recent trip to a rough Roman suburb, he apologized for the extra police protection.
The Pope’s Risky Trip
Barbie Latza Nadeau
November 21, 2014
And as this map shows, there are now five Soofas in Boston proper as well as two in the suburb of Babson.
Parks and Regeneration
The Daily Beast
November 3, 2014
Stephen Knolls School is a public school in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC.
Magical Gardens for the Blind, Deaf, and Disabled
Elizabeth Picciuto
October 22, 2014
On August 21, rockets struck in the east and west of the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, at the time a rebel stronghold.
The Kardashian Look-Alike Trolling for Assad
Noah Shachtman, Michael Kennedy
October 17, 2014

Historical Examples of suburb

She and her aunt had lived for five years in this suburb of St. Ellis.
The Golden Woman
Ridgwell Cullum
This suburb of Berea is one of the prettiest spots in South Africa.
Impressions of South Africa
James Bryce
There may be some time, when that part of the country becomes a suburb of Cordova!
The Call of the Beaver Patrol
V. T. Sherman
He has a perfectly self-conscious joy that he is not in a square or a suburb.
The Children
Alice Meynell
Not long thereafter the building in the suburb of Cooperstown was burned.
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922
Various

British Dictionary definitions for suburb

suburb

noun

a residential district situated on the outskirts of a city or town

Derived Formssuburbed, adjective

Word Origin for suburb

C14: from Latin suburbium, from sub- close to + urbs a city

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for suburb

mid-14c., "residential area outside a town or city," from Old French suburbe, from Latin suburbium "an outlying part of a city," from sub "below, near" (see sub-) + urbs (genitive urbis) "city." An Old English word for it was underburg. Close to crowds but just beyond the reach of municipal jurisdiction, suburbs in 17c., especially those of London, had a sense of "inferior, debased, and licentious habits or life" (e.g. suburban sinner, slang for "loose woman, prostitute"). By 1817, the tinge had shifted to "inferior manners and narrow views." Compare also French equivalent faubourg.

[T]he growth of the metropolis throws vast numbers of people into distant dormitories where ... life is carried on without the discipline of rural occupations and without the cultural resources that the Central District of the city still retains. [Lewis Mumford, 1922]