Boom Town Definition & Meaning

American

British

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms boom town American Or boomtown

noun

1. a town that has grown very rapidly as a result of sudden prosperity.

boom town British

noun

1. a town that is enjoying sudden prosperity or has grown rapidly

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of boom town

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Los Angeles was a boom town in the early 1910s and a war zone between the forces of labor and capital.

From Los Angeles Times

A novelist, she had written the bestselling “Annie Jordan,” about a plucky heroine in boom town Seattle modeled on her pioneer family.

From Los Angeles Times

Marysville was a gold rush boom town, more populous in 1860 than any other city in the state except for San Francisco and Sacramento.

From New York Times

Laukkaing took on the character of a Wild West boom town, where anything goes and anything can be bought and sold.

From BBC

Reminiscent of a frontier boom town, the human-built industrial port refines fossil fuels at a relentless pace.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• capital
• center
• downtown
• metropolis
• municipality
• place
• port

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.