midtownn.adj.
/ˈmɪdtaʊn/, U.S. /ˈmɪdˌtaʊn/ A. n.† 1. Scottish. The middle of a town. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > centre
midtown1532
centre1699
downtown1851
downstreet1865
midtown1882
1532 in J. S. Clouston Rec. Earldom of Orkney (1914) 336 Lyand in the vest part of the mydtoun of Kirkvald.
2. Chiefly North American. In certain large cities: a central area lying between districts referred to as downtown and uptown. Also: the area of a large city regarded as the main commercial district.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > centre
midtown1532
centre1699
downtown1851
downstreet1865
midtown1882
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > other areas
friars1479
foreign1514
acropolis1570
sestiere1599
shopping district1837
downstreet1865
Latin Quarter1869
midtown1882
club-land1885
flat-land1889
brick area1895
turf1953
grey area1959
office park1963
bed-sitter-land1968
edge city1968
1882 Fortn. Rev. Dec. 686 The visitor cannot but wonder, as he traverses the business quarters of the mid-town, at the want of display of any kind.
1929 New Yorker 26 Oct. 2 Come and see the new..Silk Stockings, at the conveniently located Gotham Midtown Shops.
1963 Listener 31 Jan. 202/2 In the very middle of mid-town, just off (and even just on) Broadway, the whole street is sometimes used as an open-air loading bay and temporary warehouse.
1988 Sunday Times 20 Nov. d5/1 The dynamic duo..are set to open an office in the Holborn area, or ‘mid-town’ as it is increasingly being called.
1992 M. Eliot Down Thunder Road i. v. 74 Andy Warhol opened his legendary factory in Chelsea, as the West Side north of the Village and south of Midtown is known.
B. adj.
Chiefly North American. Situated in or relating to midtown.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [adjective] > within a town
in-town1817
midtown1891
downtown1914
1891 Overland Monthly Mar. 228 This distance from town has its compensations in greater sweep of view, and especially in purer air than is possible in a midtown park.
1929 Jrnl. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 24 178 Public health and social work in a section of midtown New York.
1944 Sun (Baltimore) 16 Feb. 9/1 A mid-town express highway as a through-traffic route.
1959 J. Cary Captive & Free 41 The mid-town terraces which can and have so easily become slum tenements.
1974 Times 19 Jan. 10/1 New York is not yet on a three-day week, but..mid-town restaurants are doing badly.
1998 N.Y. Times 4 Jan. ivA. 8 (advt.) I commute, so having Pace's Midtown Center close to my office and Grand Central Station is convenient and makes it easier to schedule my classes around work.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.adj.1532