town-boundadj.1
/ˈtaʊnbaʊnd/, U.S. /ˈtaʊnˌbaʊnd/ΚΠ
1645 J. Bond Occasus Occidentalis 27 Our British fore-fathers were Shire-bound, City-bound, Town-bound, Parish-bound, House-bound.
2. Esp. of a building: surrounded or bounded by a town.
ΚΠ
1655 T. Fuller Hist. Univ. Cambr. v. 83 in Church-hist. Brit. Indeed this House was long Town-bound (which hindered the growth thereof) til Dr. Goslin that good Physitian cured it of that disease, by giving the Bull-Inn thereunto.
1789 J. Throsby Select Views Leics. 58 Being a competent distance from the town..it was not crowded with other houses, or town-bound.
1926 W. Frank Virgin Spain v. 104 The cathedral stands waist-high among roofs. Its grandiloquent splendor is town-bound.
1989 S. Bedford Jigsaw i. 34 I hid the contents of the delicate chicken sandwich..; the difficulty in the town-bound house without dog or cats was ultimate disposal.
3. Of a person: confined to a town or other urban area.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > restraint depriving of liberty > confinement > [adjective] > confined > to house, office, or town
homebound1794
house-ridden1835
town-bound1835
housefast1855
housebound1878
office-bound1961
1835 Leigh Hunt's London Jrnl. 6 May 143/2 Here..may the town-bound man of business cast his weary eyes over the scenes of distant lands.
1858 A. Macmillan Let. 30 Aug. (1908) 3 Poor town-bound mechanics and shopmen.
1911 Editor June 256 At the time I was home-bound as well as town-bound.
1976 D. E. Allen Naturalist in Brit. xiii. 246 While recuperating from a motor-cycle smash and unaccustomedly town-bound as a result, Dr Norman Joy found that the sewage-farm at Reading was a regular haunt of waders and other birds.
2009 J. Turk Raven's Gift ii. 93 Were the herders intentionally staying clear of their town-bound neighbors?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
town-boundadj.2
/ˈtaʊnbaʊnd/, U.S. /ˈtaʊnˌbaʊnd/ Travelling towards or headed for town; townward-bound.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [adjective] > bound towards town
townward1806
town-bound1879
1879 Pall Mall Gaz. 27 Jan. 9/2 Others make off straight across fields from Sheerness to Sittingbourne, expecting to catch a town-bound train on the sly.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 17 Oct. 7/1 There was a breakdown in the Town-bound trams at Balham.
1984 Z. Fairbairns Here Today v. 43 Town-bound commuters can expect delays at the Polish war memorial.
2005 Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, Va.) 19 Nov. 37 Lines for town-bound taxis were oddly short.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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