town hall

town hall (plural town halls)

1. A building that houses the local government offices of a town.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

2. (by extension) The town council
3. A meeting to which employees in general are allowed to attend.

   The President plans to speak to a town hall of employees at the Department's headquarters on Monday.

• city hall (larger or specially-incorporated towns); common hall, common house (obsolete); burgh chambers (term used in Scotland)