Borough
Borough ({not transcribed}) , noun
[Old English burgh, burw, boru, port, town, burrow, Anglo-Saxon burh, burg; akin to Icelandic, Swedish, & Danish borg, Old Saxon & Dutch burg, Old High German puruc, purc, Middle High German burc, German burg, Gothic baúrgs; and from the root of Anglo-Saxon beorgan to hide, save, defend, German bergen; or perh. from that of Anglo-Saxon beorg hill, mountain. r95. See Bury, transitive verb, and compare Burrow, Burg, Bury, n., Burgess, Iceberg, Borrow, Harbor, Hauberk.]
1.
In England, an incorporated town that is not a city; also, a town that sends members to parliament; in Scotland, a body corporate, consisting of the inhabitants of a certain district, erected by the sovereign, with a certain jurisdiction; in America, an incorporated town or village, as in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. — Burrill
2.
The collective body of citizens or inhabitants of a borough; as, the borough voted to lay a tax.
Collocations (2)
Close borough or Pocket borough , a borough having the right of sending a member to Parliament, whose nomination is in the hands of a single person.
Rotten borough , a name given to any borough which, at the time of the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832, contained but few voters, yet retained the privilege of sending a member to Parliament.
Borough , noun
[See Borrow.]
(a)
(O. Eng. Law) An association of men who gave pledges or sureties to the king for the good behavior of each other.
(b)
(O. Eng. Law) The pledge or surety thus given. — Blackstone. Tomlins