township
[toun-ship]
- a unit of local government, usually a subdivision of a county, found in most midwestern and northeastern states of the U.S. and in most Canadian provinces.
- (in U.S. surveys of public land) a region or district approximately 6 miles square (93.2 sq. km), containing 36 sections.
- English History.
- one of the local divisions or districts of a large parish, each containing a village or small town, usually with a church of its own.
- the manor, parish, etc., itself.
- its inhabitants.
- (in Australia)
- a small town or settlement serving as the business center of a rural area.
- the business center of a town or suburb.
- (in South Africa) a segregated residential settlement for blacks, located outside a city or town.
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Origin of township
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for township
Contemporary Examples
You stand on an unsteady pontoon bridge spanning the Tigris River in a township called Adh Dhouloueya.
Whatever You Do Someone Will Die. A Short Story About Impossible Choices in IraqNathan Bradley Bethea
August 31, 2014
At a township rally near Johannesburg, she boasted: “With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country.”
Lake Success, a township on Long Island, was home to the United Nations long before it moved to its iconic eastside headquarters.
Biography Mo Yan was born to a family of farmers in the Gaomi township in Shandong province in northeastern China.
Historical Examples
The neighborhood, the township, and the world had been snowed in.
Tiverton TalesAlice Brown
The township of Cleveland, of the county of Trumbull, was organized in 1800.
Cleveland Past and PresentMaurice Joblin
There are a door and two windows, the latter having been bought at the township.
Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2)William Delisle Hay
He's the chairman here, and he has township chairmen appointed for every township.
Stories of a Western TownOctave Thanet
This admiration and regard has extended to the fair daughters of the township.
The Depot MasterJoseph C. Lincoln
township
- a small town
- (in the Scottish Highlands and islands) a small crofting community
- (in the US and Canada) a territorial area, esp a subdivision of a county: often organized as a unit of local government
- (formerly, in South Africa) a planned urban settlement of Black Africans or Coloured peopleCompare location (def. 4)
- English history
- any of the local districts of a large parish, each division containing a village or small town
- the particular manor or parish itself as a territorial division
- the inhabitants of a township collectively
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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 township
n.
Old English tunscipe "inhabitants or population of a town." Applied in Middle English to "manor, parish, or other division of a hundred." Specific sense of "local division or district in a parish, each with a village or small town and its own church" is from 1530s; as a local municipal division of a county in U.S. and Canada, first recorded 1685.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper