town meeting
63
2.6
- noun
- /taʊn ˈmiːtɪŋ/
- In March, more than sixty people attended a town meeting to voice their support for keeping the logo.
- New England town meeting
- taken to town meetings
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Watch on YouTubeIt's not like going to town meetings and reading blueprints or for plumbing facilities.
- It's not like going to town meetings and reading blueprints or for plumbing facilities.
Examples
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In many areas of New England, town meetings are being abolished as a form of local government.
Academic text (2004) -
The forums are based on the New England town meeting model of discussion in which citizens confer and choose together.
Academic text (1993) -
And that he said, imagine that we could get people to have a big town meeting for the whole world.
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Hear you held a town meeting the other day.
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This is a town meeting.
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I think you all know why I called this town meeting.
Fiction book (2000) -
As a child, I was taken to town meetings by my parents.
Academic text (2004) -
We need to actively experiment with electronic town meetings to revitalize the "conversation of democracy."
Academic text (1991) -
Participation in town meetings, the pristine form of democracy in our country's history, is shrinking.
Academic text (2004) -
I want to remind all of you to come to our town meeting tomorrow night.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A group of people who come together for a planned purpose or to be social
39
3.7
A meeting where officials speak to people and answer questions
29
3.4
A meeting where local people ask officials questions and discuss community issues
How Large
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a meeting of the people in a town to discuss local issues' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'town' (a settlement/local community) with 'meeting' (a planned gathering). This simple noun+noun compositional pattern matches common cross-linguistic logic and follows standard English compound semantics, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand it.
Etymology
The phrase town meeting comes from a long custom where people from the town all came to the same meeting in a hall to talk and vote about local problems. So today town meeting means 'a meeting of the people in a town to discuss or make decisions about local issues'.