"come upon the town" meaning in English

See come upon the town in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Audio: en-au-come upon the town.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} come upon the town
  1. (UK, obsolete, euphemistic) To become a prostitute; to turn to prostitution. Tags: UK, euphemistic, obsolete Categories (topical): Prostitution
    Sense id: en-come_upon_the_town-en-phrase-9BOuXLXL Disambiguation of Prostitution: 80 7 13 Categories (other): British English, English euphemisms
  2. (US) To receive public charity; to have one's living supported by public funding. Tags: US Synonyms: come upon the parish
    Sense id: en-come_upon_the_town-en-phrase-ujp7Cd7i Categories (other): American English
  3. (US) To make one's debut in town society; to become (known as) a man or woman about town. Tags: US
    Sense id: en-come_upon_the_town-en-phrase-tyUGuWsO Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 13 34 53 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 17 32 51 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 18 32 50

Download JSON data for come upon the town meaning in English (3.3kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "come upon the town",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English euphemisms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "80 7 13",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Prostitution",
          "orig": "en:Prostitution",
          "parents": [
            "Sexuality",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Sex",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Reproduction",
            "Fundamental",
            "Life",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To become a prostitute; to turn to prostitution."
      ],
      "id": "en-come_upon_the_town-en-phrase-9BOuXLXL",
      "links": [
        [
          "prostitute",
          "prostitute"
        ],
        [
          "prostitution",
          "prostitution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, obsolete, euphemistic) To become a prostitute; to turn to prostitution."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "euphemistic",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1879, Historical Celebration of the Town of Brimfield, Hampden County, Mass, Clark W. Bryan Company, page 65",
          "text": "While Brimfield people have never been very rich, they have been prudent and thrifty, and there have been very few so poor as to come upon the town for support.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1912, Ada Harriet Kepley, A Farm Philosopher, Worman's Printery, page 149",
          "text": "The daughter had children and they all three came upon the town for support, for they would not work.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To receive public charity; to have one's living supported by public funding."
      ],
      "id": "en-come_upon_the_town-en-phrase-ujp7Cd7i",
      "links": [
        [
          "charity",
          "charity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) To receive public charity; to have one's living supported by public funding."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "come upon the parish"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "13 34 53",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "17 32 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 32 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make one's debut in town society; to become (known as) a man or woman about town."
      ],
      "id": "en-come_upon_the_town-en-phrase-tyUGuWsO",
      "links": [
        [
          "debut",
          "debut"
        ],
        [
          "man",
          "man about town"
        ],
        [
          "woman about town",
          "woman about town"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) To make one's debut in town society; to become (known as) a man or woman about town."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-come upon the town.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/30/En-au-come_upon_the_town.ogg/En-au-come_upon_the_town.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/En-au-come_upon_the_town.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "come upon the town"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrases",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "en:Prostitution"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "come upon the town",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English euphemisms",
        "English terms with obsolete senses"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To become a prostitute; to turn to prostitution."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "prostitute",
          "prostitute"
        ],
        [
          "prostitution",
          "prostitution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, obsolete, euphemistic) To become a prostitute; to turn to prostitution."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "euphemistic",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1879, Historical Celebration of the Town of Brimfield, Hampden County, Mass, Clark W. Bryan Company, page 65",
          "text": "While Brimfield people have never been very rich, they have been prudent and thrifty, and there have been very few so poor as to come upon the town for support.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1912, Ada Harriet Kepley, A Farm Philosopher, Worman's Printery, page 149",
          "text": "The daughter had children and they all three came upon the town for support, for they would not work.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To receive public charity; to have one's living supported by public funding."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "charity",
          "charity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) To receive public charity; to have one's living supported by public funding."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "come upon the parish"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make one's debut in town society; to become (known as) a man or woman about town."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "debut",
          "debut"
        ],
        [
          "man",
          "man about town"
        ],
        [
          "woman about town",
          "woman about town"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) To make one's debut in town society; to become (known as) a man or woman about town."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-come upon the town.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/30/En-au-come_upon_the_town.ogg/En-au-come_upon_the_town.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/En-au-come_upon_the_town.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "come upon the town"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.