company town

American

noun

a town whose inhabitants are mainly dependent on one company for employment, housing, supplies, etc.

company town British

noun

a town built by a company for its employees

"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 company town

An Americanism dating back to 1930–35

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.

TSMC’s Arizona site will be a company town on more than 2,000 acres if its plans are ultimately completed.

From The Wall Street Journal

It is a company town of 2,400—purpose-built to support coal-mining operations now owned by Conuma, which employs over 1,000 people mostly in the area.

From The Wall Street Journal

Its stucco walls and Spanish arches were once part of a Pacific Coast Borax company town, later abandoned when the boom ended.

From Los Angeles Times

Industrialist Henry Ford was after rubber when he built the company town Fordlandia on a Connecticut-sized patch of Brazil’s Amazon forest in 1927.

From Barron's

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