Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

City

Cit′y (sĭt′y̆), n.; pl. Cities (-ĭz). [OE. cite, F. cité, fr. L. civitas citizenship, state, city, fr. civis citizen; akin to Goth. heiwa (in heiwafrauja man of the house), AS. hīwan, pl., members of a family, servants, hīred family, G. heirath marriage, prop., providing a house, E. hind a peasant.] 1. A large town.

2. A corporate town; in the United States, a town or collective body of inhabitants, incorporated and governed by a mayor and aldermen or a city council consisting of a board of aldermen and a common council; in Great Britain, a town corporate, which is or has been the seat of a bishop, or the capital of his see.

A city is a town incorporated; which is, or has been, the see of a bishop; and though the bishopric has been dissolved, as at Westminster, it yet remaineth a city. Blackstone

When Gorges constituted York a city, he of course meant it to be the seat of a bishop, for the word city has no other meaning in English law. Palfrey

3. The collective body of citizens, or inhabitants of a city. "What is the city but the people?" Shak.

Syn. — See Village.

Cit′y, a. Of or pertaining to a city. Shak.

City council. See under Council. — City court, The municipal court of a city. [U. S.] — City ward, a watchman, or the collective watchmen, of a city. [Obs.] Fairfax.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.