suburb
[suhb-urb]
- 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.
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Origin of suburb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
environshinterlandoutskirtscountrysidevillageoutpostsuburbiacountryfringehamletpurlieuprecinctslubburbExamples from the Web for suburb
Contemporary Examples
By September, he was flashing a thumbs-up to assembled fans as he walked into court in a Barcelona suburb.
On a recent trip to a rough Roman suburb, he apologized for the extra police protection.
And as this map shows, there are now five Soofas in Boston proper as well as two in the suburb of Babson.
Stephen Knolls School is a public school in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC.
On August 21, rockets struck in the east and west of the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, at the time a rebel stronghold.
Historical Examples
She and her aunt had lived for five years in this suburb of St. Ellis.
The Golden WomanRidgwell Cullum
This suburb of Berea is one of the prettiest spots in South Africa.
Impressions of South AfricaJames Bryce
There may be some time, when that part of the country becomes a suburb of Cordova!
The Call of the Beaver PatrolV. T. Sherman
He has a perfectly self-conscious joy that he is not in a square or a suburb.
The ChildrenAlice Meynell
Not long thereafter the building in the suburb of Cooperstown was burned.
suburb
- a residential district situated on the outskirts of a city or town
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Word Origin
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
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Word Origin and History for suburb
n.
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]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper