Definition of "burgher" [burgh•er]

• A citizen of a town or borough. (noun)
• A comfortable or complacent member of the middle class. (noun)
• A member of the mercantile class of a medieval European city. (noun)
• A citizen of a medieval European city. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Jewish population, the so-called burgher estate, [1] consisting of petty artisans and those impoverished tradesmen who could not afford to enrol in the mercantile guilds, though there are cases on record where poor"
• "In times of peace the citizen of the Boer republics was called a burgher, and when he took up arms and went to war he received no special title to distinguish him from the man who remained at home."
• "It was not within the walls of his own house alone that the burgher might be a man of importance."