Suburb \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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)