Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) New York City, occas. Chicago.

1902		C.L. Cullen More Ex-Tank Tales 78: You’ll be able to work me for the ride to the big town.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 13: Once there was a tired Denizen of the Big Town whose home was at the end of a Hallway.
1920		R. Lardner Big Town 52: That was Chi and this is the Big Town.
1931		(con. 1915) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 199: I’ll be glad to go back to the Big Town!
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 18: big town. 1. In the East, New York City. 2. In the West, Chicago.
1938		M. Rand ‘Clip-Joint Chisellers’ in Ten Story Gang Aug. 🌐 He was in the big town from three days to a week about seven times a year.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 31 Jan. [synd. col.] Hundreds of volunteer workers for worthy causes scattered through the ciy. Who said the Big Town hasn’t a heart?
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 71: One day, when he had enough moo to leave the big town, he’d have a hack like that, only maybe pink with cream-coloured upholstery.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 55: Few people ever blitzed Big Town quicker than Barbara Jane.
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 2: He was a bindle stiff, hated by every working stiff from L.A. to the big town because their bedrolls are always lousy.

2. any city.

1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 22: big town A city.
1955		F. Brookhouser Now I Lay Me Down 13: She is like a lot of girls – from Minersville, P.A., who went to Big Town, U.S.A.
1961		W.R. Burnett Round the Clock at Volari’s 24: Traffic was getting completely out of hand in the big town.