ˈmeeting-house
† 1. A (private) house used for a meeting. Obs.
| 1658 Wood Life 14 July (O.H.S.) I. 256 They had entertain'd him with most excellent musick at the meeting house of William Ellis. |
2. a. A place of worship: in the general sense, now only
U.S. In England from the 17th c. always a nonconformist or dissenting place of worship, a conventicle: now only (
exc. with reference to the Quakers) in jocular or disparaging use.
| 1632 Rec. Cambridge, Mass. (1901) 4 Every person..shall [be]..within [the] meeting-house in the Afternoone. 1634 Rec. Watertown, Mass. (1894) I. 1 The charge of the Meeting House shal be gathered by a Rate justly levied. 1636 Plymouth Col. Rec. (1855) I. 41 There to build a meeting howse and towne. 1687 Evelyn Diary 10 Apr., There was a wonderful concourse of people at the Dissenters' Meeting-house in this parish. 1766 Wesley Jrnl. 10 Apr., It [a deed] everywhere calls the house a Meeting-House, a name which I particularly object to. 1809 Kendall Trav. I. xii. 132 Two meeting-houses, one belonging to quakers, and the other to baptists. 1847 W. E. Forster in Reid Life (1888) I. vii. 207 Last evening I deluded them into a Methody meeting-house. 1896 Mrs. H. Ward Sir G. Tressady 140 The brick meeting-houses in which they [the villages] abounded. 1910 Dialect Notes III. 445 Meeting house,..church. Older generation. 1959 Amer. Speech XXXIV. 9 Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Baptists,..and others began dropping the term meetinghouse and replacing it with church. |
b. Polynesia. A tribal hall (see
quot. 1949).
| 1865 L. Andrews Dict. Hawaiian Lang. 144/1 Ha-le-ha-la-wai, s. Hale and halawai, to meet; assemble. A meeting house; a synagogue; a place of meeting. 1897 A. Hamilton Maori Art (1901) ii. 112 Whare-matoro, a large meeting house. 1944 D. Stewart in D. M. Davin N.Z. Short Stories (1953) 267 The young Maori..led me over to the meeting-house, a long, low, gusty barn of a building. 1949 P. H. Buck Coming of Maori (1950) iii. iv. 374 The meeting houses formed the social focus of the tribe, hence they were generally named after tribal ancestors. When the people assembled within its walls for tribal discussions, the orators were justified when they said, ‘We have gathered together within the bosom of our ancestor.’ The carved meeting houses were a source of pride to the people and they gave an atmosphere to the village that nothing else could equal. 1960 N. Hilliard in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 239 There I go walking into the meeting-house with my shoes on. 1974 N.Z. Listener 20 July 10/4 They are clustered, the kuia, around the tent in which the body lies alongside the meetinghouse. |
3. attrib., as
meeting-house chamber,
meeting-house ground,
meeting-house land,
meeting-house lot,
meeting-house post,
meeting-house rate,
meeting-house yard;
† meeting-house man, a nonconformist or dissenter.
| 1651 Official Rec. Springfield, Mass. (1898–9) I. 200 The above mentioned bargain about the *meeting house chamber. |
| 1689 S. Sewall Diary (1878) I. 286 Paid 40 {pstlg}..for the Releases of *Meetinghouse Ground. |
| 1690 Ibid. 334 Mrs. Judith Winthrop's Deed of the *Meeting-house Land in Boston. |
| 1735 New Hampsh. Probate Rec. (1914) II. 523, I give to my son..a lot of land lying in the *Meeting house lot. |
| 1711 Countrey-Man's Let. to Curat 22 These were not *Meeting-House-Men in whose Favours the Councel thus Wrote,..but some of 'em Parsons, some Vicars, some Curats, &c. |
| 1647 Rec. Watertown, Mass. (1894) I. 11 A wrighting shall be sett upon the *meting-house-post, to give Warning [etc.]. |
| 1656 Ibid. 48, 2ly [that] ye give acompt of the *meeting howse rate. |
| 1712 New Hampsh. Probate Rec. (1907) I. 687 Northerly on the fence by the *metinge house yard. 1808 Beverley Lighting Act 27 Any meeting-house, chapel, church yard, and meetinghouse yard. |