burgess

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A freeman or citizen of an English borough.
• noun A member of the English Parliament who once represented a town, borough, or university.
• noun A member of the lower house of the legislature of colonial Virginia or Maryland.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In England, an inhabitant of a borough or walled town, or one who possesses a tenement therein; a citizen or freeman of a borough.
• noun A representative of a borough in the British Parliament.
• noun Hence The title given before the revolution to the representatives in the popular branch of the legislature of Virginia, which was styled the House of Burgesses, but is now called the House of Delegates. The title of members of the lower house in the colonial legislature of Maryland.
• noun A magistrate of a corporate town.
• noun A member of the corporation of a Scotch burgh; now, any inhabitant of a burgh of full age, rated for poor-rates, and not in arrears, and who for a period of three years has occupied any house, shop, or other building in it, not being an alien and not having received either parochial or burgh relief for twelve months preceding the last Whitsunday.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun An inhabitant of a borough or walled town, or one who possesses a tenement therein; a citizen or freeman of a borough.
• noun One who represents a borough in Parliament.
• noun A magistrate of a borough.
• noun An inhabitant of a Scotch burgh qualified to vote for municipal officers.
• noun See Burgher, 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun An inhabitant of a borough with full rights; a citizen.
• noun historical A town magistrate.
• noun historical, UK A representative of a borough in the Parliament.
• noun historical, US A member of the House of Burgesses, a legislative body in the colonial America, established by Virginia Company to provide civil rule in the colonies.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a citizen of an English borough
• noun English writer of satirical novels (1917-1993)