Sub"urb (?), n. [L. suburbium; sub under, below, near + urbs a city. See Urban.]
1.
An outlying part of a city or town; a smaller place immediately adjacent to a city; in the plural, the region which is on the confines of any city or large town; as, a house stands in the suburbs; a garden situated in the suburbs of Paris.
"In the
suburbs of a town."
Chaucer.
[London] could hardly have contained less than thirty or forty thousand souls within its walls; and the suburbs were very populous.
Hallam.
2.
Hence, the confines; the outer part; the environment.
"The
suburbs . . . of sorrow."
Jer. Taylor.
The suburb of their straw-built citadel.
Milton.
Suburb roister, a rowdy; a loafer. [Obs.] Milton.
© Webster 1913.