▪ I. house, n.1
(haʊs)
Pl. houses (ˈhaʊzɪz). Forms: 1 h{uacu}s, 2–4 (6 Sc.) hus, 3–5 hows, 3–6 hous, 4– house, (4 huus, houus, huse, huis, Sc. howise, 4–6 Sc. houss, 4–7 howse, 6 owse, Sc. hws(z, housse). For the plural forms see 1 β.
[Com. Teut.: OE. h{uacu}s = OFris., OS. hûs (Du. huis, LG. huus), OHG., MHG. hûs (Ger. haus), ON. hûs (Sw., Da. hus (huus)), Goth. -hûs (known only in gudhûs temple, the usual word being razn). The ulterior etymology is uncertain: it has been with some probability referred to the verbal root hud-, hûd- of h{yacu}dan to hide, Aryan keudh-, OTeut. hûso-, from hûsso-, going back to hûþto-; but other suggestions have also been offered.]
I. The simple word.
1. A building for human habitation; esp. a building that is the ordinary dwelling-place of a family.
| Beowulf (Z.) 286 On heah-stede husa selest. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. vii. 27 Þæt hus feoll and hys hryre wæs mycel. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2010 Putifar luuede ioseph wel, bi-taȝte him his hus euerilc del. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 17/548 A rode he hadde in is hous. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. ii. 40 Þer nas halle ne hous þat miht herborwe þe peple. 1483 Cath. Angl. 190/2 To make an Howse, domificare. 1539 Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1552) 66 A lytle house wel fylled A lytle grounde well tylled And a litle wife wel willed is best. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion (Rubric), When the holy Communion is celebrate..in priuate howses. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xl. (1887) 222 His house is his castle. 1676 Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 33 To be quit of itt I confine myself to the house. 1710 M. Henry Comm., Luke xxii. 10 Whether it was a friend's house or a public house does not appear. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. vi. 8 Living alone in an empty house. |
(
β) The plural was in
OE. h{uacu}s, in 12th c.
husas,
huses, from 14th c.
houses; also in various writers from
c 1550, and still dialectally,
housen, which is sometimes collective.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Mark x. 30 Þe hund-feald ne onfo..hus & broðru & swustru [Lindisf. huso, Rushw. huse, Wyclif housis, Tindale houses]. a 1123 O.E. Chron. an. 1116 Bærnde..eallæ þa husas. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 49 Riche men..þe habbeð feire huses. c 1205 Lay. 1937 Þa makeden heo hus. a 1300 Cursor M. 6117 An soght þair huses [Gött. housis, Fairf. houses] all bi-dene. 1529 Wolsey in Four C. Eng. Lett. 10 My howsys ther be in decay. 1557 North tr. Gueuara's Diall Pr. 194 a/2 The housen wherin they dwel. 1600 Holland Livy 218 Sacking, rifling and flinging the goods out of their enemies housen. 1605 Lond. Prodigal ii. iv, Two housen furnished well in Coleman Street. 1645 in N. Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. (1849) III. 82 After the death of my wife I giue unto the children of my brother John all my housen and lands. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Housen, houses, property in bricks and mortar. |
b. The portion of a building, consisting of one or more rooms, occupied by one tenant or family.
Sc. and
dial.| c 1020 Rule St. Benet (Logeman) 54 Candel æfre on ðam ylcan huse byrne oð merien. 1529 Will in Harding Hist. Tiverton (1847) II. 31 Every one of them shall have in the [alms] house a siverall house and chamber by himself. 1600 in Bisset Ess. Hist. Truth v. (1871) 217 At the last, his Majesty passing through three or four sundry houses, and all the doors locked behind him, his Majesty entered into a little study. 1885 2nd Rep. R. Comm. Housing Wrkg. Classes 4 The single-room system appears to be an institution co-existent with urban life among the working classes in Scotland..even in modern legislation the word ‘house’ is used for any separately occupied portion of a building, while the word ‘tenement’ represents the whole edifice, the English use of the terms being reversed. |
c. The living-room in a farmhouse, etc.; that which the family usually occupy, as distinguished from the parlour, bedrooms, etc.
dial.| 1674 Ray N.C. Words 26 The House, the Room called the Hall. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, House, the family sitting room, as distinguished from the other apartments. 1828 Craven Dial., Howse, the principal room in a farm-house. 1893 S. O. Addy Hall Waltheof 182 In this neighbourhood [Sheffield] the kitchen of a cottage is known as ‘the house’. |
2. A building for human occupation, for some purpose other than that of an ordinary dwelling. (Usually with defining prefix: see almshouse,
bakehouse,
brewhouse,
lighthouse,
summer-house,
workhouse, etc., etc.)
the House, a popular euphemism for the workhouse.
| 1552 in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. iii. 151 The house..for the relief and socour of the poore, called the house of woorke. 1598 in Antiquary (1888) May 212 To Constables of the hundred for the housen of the hospitalls iijs iiij{supd}. 1722 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 42, I.. went to a boiling house..and got a mess of broth. 1781 R. King Mod. Lond. Spy 63 Here once were many more of these houses of Resort. 1801 T. A. Murray Rem. Situat. Poor title-p., A Plan for the Institution of Houses of Recovery for Persons affected with Fever. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz (1836) 1st Ser. I. 3, I suppose you must have an order into the house. 1839–40 F. Trollope M. Armstrong I. iv. 100 Not the quarter of a farthing, unless you'll come into the house. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xvi, ‘He was brought up in the’—with a shiver of repugnance—‘the House’. 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere II. iii. xix. 140 If they turn us out..there'll be nothing left but the House for us old 'uns. |
b. A place of worship (considered as the abode of the deity); a temple; a church. (Usually
house of God,
the Lord's house,
house of prayer, etc.)
to bow down (or worship) in the house of Rimmon (after 2 Kings v. 18): to pay lip-service to some principle which one does not accept; to sacrifice one's principles for the sake of conformity.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxi. 13 Hyt ys awriten min hus ys ᵹebed-hus. Ibid. Luke vi. 4 He eode into godes huse. c 1000 Ags. Ps (Th.) lxxxiii[i]. 11 Ic..wel ceose þæt ic hean gange on hus Godes. c 1200 Vices & Virtues 33 Alle hem ðe on godes huse wunien. a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxii. 9 Þat i won in þe hows of lord in lenght of dayes. 1535 Coverdale 2 Kings v. 18 Yf I worshippe in the house of Rimmon, whan my lorde goeth there in to y⊇ house to worshippe. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. xxi. 110 b, The first house of prayer whiche Abraham buylded. a 1708 Beveridge Thes. Theol. (1710) II. 291 Where God is pleased to reveal Himself most, is called His house. 1718 Defoe in W. Lee Life & recently discovered Writings Defoe (1869) I. p. xiii, Thus I bow in the House of Rimmon, and must humbly recommend myself to his Lordship's Protection. 1811 Heber Hymn, ‘Hosanna to the living Lord’ iii, O Saviour! with protecting care Return to this thy house of prayer. 1842 Tennyson Two Voices 409 On to God's house the people prest. 1903 Kipling Five Nations 104 Duly with knees that feign to quake—Bent head and shaded brow,—Yet once again, for my father's sake, In Rimmon's House I bow. 1956 N. Annan in J. Morris From Third Programme 150 If you bow down in the house of Rimmon you admit that its values are more important than yours. |
c. A building for the entertainment of travellers or of the public generally; an inn, tavern. (See also
ale-house,
coffee-house,
eating-house,
public house, etc.) Also, used
attrib. of wines selected and bought in bulk by the management in a restaurant, hotel, etc., to be offered at a special price, and often served from a carafe or by the glass.
† house! an exclamation to summon the landlord or waiter (
obs.).
on the house: at the expense of the tavern, saloon, etc.; also
transf. and
fig. (
orig. U.S.).
| 1550 Crowley Epigr. 285 In taverns and tiplyng houses. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 220 The Coho house is a house of good fellowship..in the Coho house they also inebriate their braines with Arace and Tobacco. 1668 G. Etherege She Would if She Could i. ii, He has engaged to dine with Mr. Courtal at the French house. 1696 Dogget Country Wake v. i, House! house! (beating on the Table). What, are you all dead here? house! 1773 Goldsm. Stoops To Conq. iv. Wks. (Globe) 665/2 Were you not told to drink freely, and call for what you thought fit, for the good of the house? 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 143 It was a great thing for the house. 1889 Kansas City (Missouri) Times & Star 30 Nov., The first drink Thursday was ‘on the house’ in the leading saloons. 1891 Times 12 Sept. 10/3 A tied house..is one..owned by a brewer for the sale of his goods. 1934 J. A. Lee Children of Poor (1949) 26 ‘I must have a drink.’ Here, have one on the house. 1944 Auden For Time Being (1945) 77 A voice I'd heard before, I think, Cried: ‘This is on the House.’ 1958 M. Dickens Man Overboard xiii. 214 Laundry and cleaning were on the house. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 95 One night just for the hell of it he has one on the house with the society gal, and she gets pregnant. 1967 W. Soyinka Kongi's Harvest 18 Daodu:... Naturally it's on the house. Secretary: No, thank you. I prefer to pay for my drinks. 1967 O. Lancaster With Eye to Future v. 120 The food was good and cheap, the house burgundy at five bob a bottle excellent. 1973 Good Food Guide 313 Small family guest house... House wine only (Hirondelle), {pstlg}1 a carafe, 15p the glass. 1973 K. Giles File on Death ii. 28 The Chief Inspector..signed the bill in defiance of Honeybody's pleas for welsh rarebit and a trial run of the house port. 1976–7 Art N.Z. Dec./Jan. 46/3 (Advt.), Havelock red: unlike other house reds has avoided becoming too functional and is not at all cliché. 1979 Tucson Mag. Apr. 77/3 Best deal is probably the dinner package for $5.45, including..house wine with the meal. 1986 Times 31 May 15/2 My companion's smoked salmon salad..was nicely complemented by the sprightly Californian house wine ({pstlg}6.75). |
3. A building for the keeping of cattle, birds, plants, goods, etc. (See also
cow-house,
dovehouse, greenhouse,
hen-house, hothouse,
outhouse,
storehouse,
warehouse, etc.)
| 1503–4 Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 37 §5 Too Cotages or Meses wyth Howses & Wharfes..in Stepeney. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. xx. (1539) 41 An oxe hous, a hey howse. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 13 These..be Barnes to laye Corne in. In some places they use..stackes set upon proppes..but the houses are a great deal better. Ibid., Next are houses for my sheepe, and next them for Kine, Calves, and Heyfers. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. v. 24 So..Doues with noysome stench Are from their.. Houses driven away. 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 216 Garden houses built at convenient distances. 1726 Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 28 A little House, meant for a Green-house. Mod. The gardener who has charge of the houses. |
4. a. The place of abode of a religious fraternity, a religious house (
cf. house of religion, sense 15), a convent;
transf. the religious fraternity itself.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Eugenia 265 Quhen þe abbot wes dede, Ewyne chosine wes in his stede; And sa wele gouernyt þe houss. c 1400 Rom. Rose 6692 Houses that han proprete, As templers and hospitelers, And as these chanouns regulers. 1492 Bury Wills (Camden) 73 Item I bequethe to euery hows of ffryeres in Cambredge, Lynne, Norwiche, Thetford, Clare, Sudbury, to eche of thes howses vjs. viijd. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 32 One of that owse John Forrest was comandyd to preche at Powlles crosse the sonday after. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 813 A famous religious house of Carmelite Friers. 1855 Prescott Philip II, ii. vi. (1857) 259 The abbots..were indebted for their election to the religious houses over which they presided. |
b. A college in a university (
i.e. either the building, or the fellows and students collectively). Chiefly in traditional phrases and uses,
esp. in
the House, familiar name for Christ Church, Oxford, and
Peterhouse, for
St. Peter's College, Cambridge.
| 1536 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 42 §1 Colleges, Houses, Howses Collegiate. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 166 When I was in Cambrige, and a student in the kynges College..the Provost of that house [etc.]. 1576 Act 18 Eliz. c. 6 Chief Ruler of any Colledge Cathedrall Churche Halle or Howse of Learninge. 1583, 1780 Heads of houses [see head n.1 25 b]. 1642–6 in Quincy Hist. Harvard (1840) I. 517 If any scholar shall transgress any of the laws of God, or the House..after twice admonition, he shall be liable..to correction. 1748 J. Belcher in J. Maclean Hist. Coll. N. Jersey (1877) I. 147 If, finally, money cannot be raised for the House..the thing must be given up. 1856 Oxf. Univ. Cal. 16 (List of Officers) The Hebdomadal Council. Official..Heads of Houses..Professors..Members of Convocation. 1868 [see houseman 3]. 1894 in Westm. Gaz. 5 July 2/2 The indignation..felt by the present undergraduates of Christ Church against the individuals who deliberately introduced outsiders for the express purpose of wrecking the house. |
c. A boarding-house attached to and forming a portion of a public school; the company of boys lodged in such a house. Also, in day schools, a division of the school for purposes of organization and games or other competition. Also
attrib.| 1855 J. A. Symonds Let. Oct. (1967) I. 64 Tom Parr who has just joined his regiment came down here today with an old house fellow. 1856 ― Let. June I. 73, I had them sent to the Head of the House who flogged two. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. vi, I'm as proud of the house as any one. I believe it's the best house in the school, out-and-out. 1857 ― Let. 15 Nov. I. 126 Yesterday I played in a house match. 1891 Pall Mall G. 6 Oct. 2/3 The real unit in most of the large public schools is the ‘house’, and it is the house-master who has the most powerful influence over his pupils. Mod. A football match between two houses. 1899 Kipling Stalky 124, I thought the house-prefects might know more about it than I did. They ought to. They're giddy palladiums of public schools. 1908 A. Huxley Let. Nov. (1969) 29 M'tutor, who is also my house tutor and my division beak, is a dear man. 1922 C. E. Montague Disenchantment vii. 93 A boy of this kidney, while looking on at a vital house match, will give his mind ease by telling a friend what ‘a lot of stinkers’ the other house are. 1925 City of Oxford Sch. Mag. Mar. 8 Kerry House hold the new cup for the winning House for the first year. Ibid. July 33 In the points counting for the House Shield. 1949 W. B. Gallie Eng. School ii. 31 He managed to infuse his ideas into the masters who coached the school's junior fifteens, house fifteens, and so on. 1965 A. Nicol Truly Married Woman 76 An important football house-match was scheduled for that afternoon. 1966 P. Willmott Adolescent Boys E. London v. 93 After registration I took house prayers as House Captain. |
d. The building in which a legislative or deliberative assembly meets;
transf. the assembly itself; a quorum of such an assembly,
esp. in the phrases
to make a house,
keep a house. (See also
House of commons,
of delegates,
of lords,
of representatives,
Houses of parliament, etc., under these words.)
| 1545 Brinklow Compl. 3 b, All the degreys of men in the Parlament howse. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI 158 The commons of the lower house, not forgettyng their olde grudge. 1559 in Strype Ann. Ref. (1824) I. App. vi. 399 What fourther authorite can this howse give unto her highness, then she hath already? a 1577 Sir T. Smith in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) III. v. 55 Do you remember then the motion of the Speaker and the request of the Commons' house? 1624 in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1849) II. 450 Sir Edward Coke is of the house. a 1635 Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 39 Sir Henry Norris, whom she called up at a Parliament, to sit with the Peers in the higher House, as Lord Norris of Ricot. 1648 Duke of Hamilton in H. Papers (Camden) 160 By his submission to the 2 Houses. 1648 Herrick Hesp. (1869) 326 As when the disagreeing Commons throw About their House, their clamorous I, or No. 1716 B. Church Hist. Philip's War (1867) II. 93 Maj. Church being at Boston, and belonging to the House of Representatives. 1741 Middleton Cicero I. vi. 485 Cicero..made the petition so ridiculous that the house rejected it. 1775 J. Adams Fam. Lett. (1876) 99 There had not been members enough to make a House, several colonies being absent. 1789 Constit. U.S. i. §1 A Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. x. 226 The greatest part of the people of England were not yet satisfied whether the King levied war first against the houses, or the houses against him. 1845 Disraeli Sybil (1863) 164 ‘Are you going down to the house, Egerton?’ inquired Mr. Berners at Brooks', of a brother M.P. 1885 Manch. Exam. 21 May 6/1 A House had hardly been made, and Mr. Speaker was scarcely in his chair. 1890 Blackw. Mag. CXLVIII. 703/2 Not only must the Government Whips keep a house, but they must keep a majority. 1892 Chamb. Jrnl. 20 Feb. 114/2 Those who remain..for the sake of ‘keeping a house’. |
e. Applied also to the deliberative assemblies of the Convocation of an ecclesiastical province, of the Convocation and Congregation of a University, etc.; formerly also to a municipal corporation.
| 1562 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 293 At the same Counseyll yt is ordered that Thomas Furres..be dismyssed this howse [City Corporation]. 1576 Ibid. 380 Every suche person, being of thys worshippful howse, shalbe dys⁓charged of the same howse. 1666 Wood Life 20 Oct. (O.H.S.) II. 90 The maior, baillive[s], and some of the house after him. 1705 Hearne Collect. 31 Oct. (O.H.S.) I. 61 There was a full House [of Convocation]. 1831 Sir W. Hamilton Discuss. (1853) 407 In Oxford it behoved that the regents constituted the House of Congregation..through which, every measure should pass, before it could be submitted to the House of Convocation. 1871 G. R. Cutting Student Life Amherst Coll. 93 In the summer term of 1828, a legislative body was formed in college, known as the ‘House of Students’. Its object was to enact such laws..as the good of a college community would seem to require. |
f. A place of business;
transf. a business establishment, a mercantile firm.
the House (
colloq.): the Stock Exchange. (See also clearing-house,
counting-house,
custom-house, India-house , etc.)
Also,
spec. (
i)
= house of ill fame (see 11 below). (
ii) A couture establishment. (
iii) A printing or publishing house. (
iv) Used
attrib., in
house journal,
house magazine, etc., a publication written for and circulated within a business firm, group, etc.
| 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. xvi. 41 Treasurer of the house of the Indias. 1756 Rolt Dict. Trade, House,..particularly applied, in partnerships of trade, to that house where the business is carried on. 1814 Stock Exchange Laid Open 31 Now for the House itself; that is, the Stock Exchange. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. iii. 27 Hurrying works through the press..by dividing them among a variety of houses. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 41 Some of the large German houses in London..advanced large sums. 1891 Daily News 5 Feb. 3/3 Business in the ‘House’ does not improve much. |
| (i) c 1810 W. Hickey Memoirs (1960) iv. 63, I was informed with vast glee by these wild young men that..they had discovered two new houses of infinite merit. a 1922 T. S. Eliot Waste Land Drafts (1971) 5 I've kept a decent house for twenty years. 1931 R. Campbell Georgiad ii. 45 The old ‘Matronas’ of the Southern Race Can run their ‘houses’ with a smiling face, Business and pleasure to one end unite. 1954 P. Adler (title) A house is not a home. 1962 John o' London's 1 Feb. 115/1 The girls who had worked in ‘houses’ were unfitted, by temperament and training, for any other sort of life. 1968 L. Durrell Tunc ii. 47 ‘You see,’ said Mrs. Henniker piteously ‘what we are up against all the time? How to run a respectable house what I mean?’ |
| (ii) 1864 2nd Rep. Children's Employment Comm. 39 in Parl. Papers xxii. 1 At some houses all in the show-room are expected to wear black glacé silk. 1880 in L. de Vries Victorian Advts. (1968) Messrs. Jay import from the first houses in Paris Models of every style. 1931 S. Jameson Richer Dust v. 145, I have good taste. I could think of dresses. I should have to go round the various houses. 1938 D. Smith Dear Octopus iii. i. 108, I can go to Raquelle's London house if I like. 1967 Guardian 24 July 4/6 Instead of showing their collections four weeks after the other houses, Givenchy and Balenciaga..show on August 3. |
| (iii) 1683–4 J. Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing (1962) 16 A Printing-House may admit of a twofold meaning; one..relative to the House or Place wherein Printing is used; the other..only the Printing Tools... Thus they say..such a one has remov'd his Printing-House, when thereby they only mean he has remov'd the Tools us'd in his former House. 1871 G. Meredith Let. 3 July (1970) I. 448 The debt has been left unsettled owing to my having kept back my work to perfect it more. It was honourably incurred by me out of consideration for your house. 1935 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Apr. 217/4 Already there obtained something approaching what is now called ‘the style of the house’. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 399 There was no one in the house who had guts enough to say that Some Came Running was a washer-woman at 1,200 pages, and could be fair at 400. |
| (iv) 1907 Electr. World XLIX. 674/1 The subject of ‘house organs’ for manufacturing concerns was discussed. 1915 Writer's Bulletin Jan. 75/1 The Hoggson Magazine..is an example of the artistic heights to which the ‘house organ’ may attain. 1925 Writer's Monthly June 466/1 These little magazines, or internal house organs, as they are called by the advertising fraternity, are usually of an inspirational character. 1959 Times Rev. Industry Mar. 5/2 Publications such as..house magazines. 1962 Punch 7 Mar. 375/2 Forty per cent of Sixth Form boys..read Punch, or so..their house-journal, Sixth Form Opinion, tells us. 1969 ‘E. Lathen’ Murder to Go xvii. 171 Chicken Feed, house organ of the Chicken Tonight organization, was not due for three weeks. 1970 T. Hilton Pre-Raphaelites ii. 49 The Germ..was the first house journal of a self-consciously avant-garde artistic group. 1970 Vogue May 48/2 They want..to make the cinema altogether a pleasant experience, with programmes, discussions, attractive usherettes..and a house magazine. 1971 Nature 5 Mar. 3/1 Physical Review, the house journal of the American Physical Society. |
g. A theatre,
playhouse;
transf. the audience or attendance at a theatre, or other place of entertainment. Also, of stage or cinema performances closely following each other,
first house,
second house.
house full: the announcement posted outside a place of entertainment to indicate to the public that there is no room available; also
transf.| 1662–3 Pepys Diary 8 Jan., The famous new play acted..‘The Adventures of Five Hours’ at the Duke's house... We..were forced to sit..at the end of the lower formes, so full was the house..The house, by its frequent plaudits, did show their sufficient approbation. 1739 Cibber Apol. (1756) II. 11 Acted every day for a month to constantly crowded houses. 1756 Connoisseur No. 133 ¶4 He..seldom or never misses appearing at one house or the other, in the green boxes. 1815 W. Irving in Life & Lett. (1864) I. 344 In consequence of acting so often before indifferent houses. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz (1836) 1st Ser. II. 202 There'll be a full house to-night—six parties in the boxes already. 1891 Daily News 3 Oct. 5/6 The familiar London theatre legend, ‘House full’, might have been hung outside the doors. 1898 J. Hollingshead Gaiety Chron. ii. 115 No ‘house full’ boards were exhibited outside the theatre. 1906 J. M. Synge Lett. to Molly (1971) 49, I dreamed also that Tolstoi..came to our plays..and that there was a very bad house. 1906 Daily Chron. 23 Dec. 3/2 It would be natural to suppose that the book trade this Christmas has been a ‘house full’ affair. 1914 Aeroplane 2 Sept. 211/1 Both Services have practically put up the ‘House Full’ sign, and have a waiting list yards in length. 1921 G. B. Shaw Let. 27 Dec. in To a Young Actress (1960) 12 Until you can hit the boy at the back of the gallery in a three hundred pound house. 1924 in L. Warwick Death of Theatre (1960) vi. 62 The management have long felt that many first-class productions have been spoilt by the rush of two houses. 1930 J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement vii. 358 If I can get two seats for the first house tomorrow night, will you come with me? 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake 62 It was after the show at Wednesbury that one tall man..returning late..from the second house..had a barkiss revolver placed to his face. 1940 H. G. Wells Babes in Darkling Wood ii. i. 137 He might go into some cinema... Or he might get in for the second house at the Holborn or Pavilion? 1968 Blues Unlimited Dec. 4 He played little guitar the first house but sang ‘Two ways to skin a cat’. |
h. Used
attrib. of a permanent or resident band, jazz group, etc.
| 1934 S. R. Nelson All about Jazz iv. 76 There are many combinations which only record and play over the radio... These orchestras are often composed of prominent members of famous bands, in which case they are known as ‘house’ combinations. 1958 J. C. Holmes Horn (1959) 34 The drummer for the house band good-naturedly chased Wing's warm-up runs with precise rim-shots. 1966 Crescendo Nov. 23/1 He was part of the house rhythm section for Prestige Records. 1968 Blues Unlimited Nov. 26 The earlier Tampas are better—though hardly classifiable as ‘house band’. |
5. The persons living in one dwelliing; the inmates of a house collectively: a household, family. Also
son,
daughter of the house.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. John iv. 53 Gelefde ðæ ilca & hus his all [Ags. Gosp. eall his hiw-ræden]. c 1230 Hali Meid. 3 Forȝet ti folc & tine fader hus. 1382 Wyclif Acts xvi. 33 And he is baptysid, and al his hous anoon. c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 16 In Armes desirous As any Bacheler of al his hous. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings xvii. 15 He ate, & she also, and hir house a certayne season. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. iii. 156 Commend me to thy Lady, And bid her hasten all the house to bed. 1768 Johnson Lett. to Mrs. Thrale 23 May, I count the friendship of your house among the felicities of life. 1802 C. Wilmot Let. 3 Jan. in Irish Peer (1920) 32 Lady Mount Cashal was handed out of the Room by Monsieur l'Abbé Sièyes, and I by Monsieur, the Son of the House. 1894 Gladstone Horace, Odes iii. xvii. 16 Tomorrow a young porker slay, And let thine house make holiday. Mod. The whole house was down with influenza. 1926 Wodehouse Heart of Goof ii. 54 The modern butler..looks like the son of the house. 1949 ‘M. Innes’ Journeying Boy xiii. 167 Mr. Thewless..felt that the son of the house might turn out to be someone to rely upon. 1968 ‘D. Torr’ Treason Line 30 The daughter of the house, a slim, petite girl. |
6. A family including ancestors and descendants; a lineage, a race:
esp. one having continuity of residence, of exalted rank, or high renown.
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. (Th.) cxiii. 21 [cxv. 12] Þu ᵹebletsadest bearn Israhela, Aarones hus. c 1340 Cursor M. 10863 (Trin.) In iacobes hous regne shal he. 1382 Wyclif Luke ii. 4 He was of the hous and meyne of Dauith. c 1477 Caxton Jason 53 Honour and worship to me and of oure house. 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 213 The Duke of Burgoin loved better the house of Lancastre, then the house of Yorke. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 111 A plague a both your houses! 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 263 Subject to the house of Austria. 1789 Belsham Ess. I. iii. 51 The right of blood clearly rested in the house of Stuart. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 629 Not far off sleep two chiefs of the great house of Howard. 1872 Ruskin Eagle's Nest §171 To read the shields, and remember the stories, of the great houses of England. |
7. transf. and
fig. (from 1).
a. fig. Dwelling-place; place of abode, rest, deposit, etc.
| a 1000 Elene 1237 (Gr.) Þus ic frod and fus þurh þæt fæcne hus, wordcræft wæf and wundrum læs. c 1200 Grave in Erlanger Beitr. (1890) 11 Dureleas is ðæt hus. c 1205 Lay. 32155 Þe pape hatte Sergius, he weteð Peteres hus. a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. 73 For sunful folk, suete Jesus, Thou lihtest from the heȝe hous. 1382 Wyclif Job xxx. 23 For thou shalt take me to deth, wher is sett an hous to alle liuende. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxi. 67 Quhen na houss is bot hell and hevin. 1580 Sidney Arcadia iii. Wks. 1724 II. 420 The house of death had so many doors, as she would easily fly into it. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. ii. i, Like a pestilence, it doth infect The houses of the brain. c 1610 Women Saints 135 Breathing out as much as my poor little breath could afforde from my house of haye [cf. ‘All flesh is grass’]. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 458 A heavenly mind May be indifferent to her house of clay. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iv. iv, The peaceful house of death. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xxxv, Yet if some voice that man could trust Should murmur from the narrow house. |
b. transf. The habitation of any animal; a den, burrow, nest; the shell of a snail, tortoise, etc., in which the animal lives or into which it retires.
| a 1000 Phœnix 202 in Exeter Bk., Þær se wilda fuᵹel..ofer heanne beam hus ᵹetimbreð. a 1250 Owl & Night. 623 Hwane min hus stont briht and grene Of þine nis nowiht isene. 1398 Trevisa Barth De P.R. xviii. cvii. (Bodl. MS.), The snaile hatte testudo and haþ þat name, for he is heled in his hous in a chambre. c 1566 J. Alday tr. Boaystuau's Theat. World B vij, Snayles..beare with them their houses easely on their backes. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 25 The Sea Tortoise is not much differing from those at land, her house or shell is only flatter. 1728–46 Thomson Spring 654 The swallow..to build his hanging house Intent. 1748 H. Ellis Hudson's Bay 160 The Constructions of these Creatures [Beavers] Dens, Burroughs, or, as they are commonly called, Houses are..built of Wood, Stone, and Clay. |
c. A receptacle of any kind.
| 1610 T. Godwin Moses & Aaron i. x. 43 They did put them into one skin in which there was the proportion of four housen or receptacles, and not into four skins. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., House of water, a cavity or space filled with water. Cornwall. |
8. Astrol. a. A twelfth part of the heavens as divided by great circles through the north and south points of the horizon; the whole sky, excluding those parts that never rise and that never set, being thus divided into twelve houses, numbered eastwards, beginning with the
house of the ascendant (see
ascendantB. 1), and each having some special signification attached to it.
b. A sign of the zodiac considered as the seat of the greatest influence of a particular planet; each of the seven planets, except the sun and moon, having two such houses, a
day house and a
night house.
| c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §4 The hows of the assendent, þat is to seyn, the firste hous or the est Angle, is a thing more brod & large. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. ix. (1495), Amonge triplycytees of howses those that ben in the Eest ben stronger in theyr werkynge. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 5 b, Whan the planetes entre in to their houses. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 58 The houses, aspects, and locall places of the signes and planets. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iv. xxxvi. (1636) 494 A general figure of the 12. houses of Heauen, according to the Iudicial of Astrology. 1632 Massinger City Madam ii. ii, Venus, in the west angle, the house of marriage the seventh house, in trine of Mars, in conjunction of Luna. 1695 Congreve Love for L. ii. iii, This is the effect of the malicious conjunctions and oppositions in the third house of my nativity. 1819 Wilson Compl. Dict. Astrol. s.v., There are two kinds of houses..mundane and planetary. 1897 Zadkiel's Almanac 57 When Saturn and Uranus are in the first house. |
† 9. a. Each square of a chess-board.
Obs.| 1656 Beale Chess, His [the king's] draught is but one house at a time. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 263/2 (Chess) House is every one of the squares, whether they be white or black. 1829 A. Jamieson Dict. Mech. Science s.v. Chess, A board divided into 64 squares or houses. |
b. Curling. The space within the outermost circle drawn round the tee.
| 1883 J. Macnair Channel-Stane 1st Ser. 50 The stone draws past everything save the winner, which is knocked clear of the house. 1914 J. G. Grant Complete Curler ii. vii. 91 The space within the 7-foot ring is colloquially known as the ‘house’ (Scotice, ‘hoose’), or sometimes ‘parish’. 1969 R. Welsh Beginner's Guide Curling xii. 89 A player will strike out the shot and his own stone will also roll out, leaving an empty house. |
c. Lotto played (
orig. in the Army) as a gambling game with special cards and checks. Also, the
house-caller or
house-man who organizes the game, the winning of the game or the call announcing this, or the prize given. See also
housey-housey.
| 1900 Strand Mag. Apr. 419/2 When they were not drilling they were playing ‘House’. 1917 A. G. Empey From Fire Step 125 The two most popular games are ‘Crown and Anchor’ and ‘House’. Ibid. 126 As soon as the estaminet is sufficiently crowded the proprietors of the ‘House Game’ get busy. 1918 R. D. Holmes Yankee in Trenches v. 60 If you get all your numbers covered, you call out ‘house’, winnng the pot. 1919 [see clickety-click (click n.1 8)]. 1920 G. K. Rose 2/4th Oxf. & Bucks Lt. Infty. 200 On the air floated the monotonous enumeration of ‘House’. 1923 Daily Mail 9 June 7 The game of ‘house’, or ‘box and numbers’. 1933 [see clickety-click (click n.1 8)]. 1936 F. Richards Old-Soldier Sahib iii. 69 It takes two men to work a game of House: one calls out the numbers, the other collects the money and issues the cards. 1945 Gen 30 June 27/1 The house-caller announced that the amount of the house was two and a half piastres short of ten pounds. 1951 Amer. Speech XXVI. 99/1 House, the man who runs the game is spoken of as the ‘house’ or the ‘house man’. 1973 Guardian 12 June 20 They were in a crooked [Bingo] game... Certain cards were stacked for a quick House against others which were..distinct long-shots. |
II. Phrases.
* With nouns. (See also
house of correction,
house of detention,
house of ease, etc., under these words.)
10. house of call:
a. a house where journeymen of a particular trade assemble, where carriers call for commissions, or where various persons in request may be heard of;
b. gen. a house at which one is wont to call or pay a visit.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, House of Call, the usual lodging Place of Journey-men Tailers. 1756 Rolt Dict. Trade, House of Call, a house where journeymen taylors, shoemakers, and all other artificers meet, and may be heard of. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xiii, This poor waggoner's house-of-call. 1845 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 345, I shall feel a lost man in London without my morning ‘house of call’ at Hart Street. |
11. house of ill (evil) fame (repute): a disreputable house;
esp. a brothel. Also
house of accommodation (
cf. accommodation 7 b),
house of assignation (
cf. assignation 10).
| a 1726 Vanbrugh Journ. London 1, He was kidnapped into a house of ill repute. 1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman Pleasure II. 12 This was the safest, politest, and, at the same time, the most thorough house of accommodation in town. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 76 A particular part of the city, noted for houses of ill-fame. 1790 J. B. Moreton Mann. W. Ind. 187 Should business call you into a Grog-shop, or other house of ill fame. 1821 Combe Dr. Syntax, Wife (1869) 317/2 This is a house of evil-fame. 1834 Sun (N.Y.) 10 Apr. 2/2 Such men as Samuel Q. Wright, (a bank man) the keeper of a notorious house of assignation, and prostitution. 1861 B. Hemyng in H. Mayhew London Labour Extra vol. (1862) 255/1 Keepers of houses of assignation, where the last-mentioned class [sc. ladies of intrigue] may carry on their amours with secrecy. 1886 N. H. Dole tr. Tolstoï's Anna Karénina xxv, She wanted to escape from the house of ill-fame where she was. 1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country x. 146 They started a house of accommodation in the most unlikely place for patrons. 1973 G. Butler Coffin for Pandora i. 26 Just as some of them could rise to an elegant house in Brompton, others could sink to a house of accommodation off the Haymarket or even worse. |
12. house and home: and alliterative strengthening of ‘home’; usually in
phr. to cast,
drive,
hunt, etc.
out of house and home; see also
eat v. 4 a. So
house and harbour.
| c 1200 Vices & Virtues 35 Wif and children, hus and ham. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 7702 He caste out of house & hom of men a gret route. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 229 Men of þe lond were i-dryve out of hir hous and hir home. 1527 Tindale Doct. Treat. (1848) 122 The prayers of them that..eat the poor out of house and harbour. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 204 Hunted out of house and home. 1597–1832 [see eat v. 4 a]. 1885 Scribner's Mag. XXX. 394/1 To keep the friends of the deceased from eating and drinking his widow and orphans out of house and home. |
13. house-to-house attrib. phr. (usually with a noun of action, as
visitation, etc.): Performed or carried on from house to house in succession. Also
ellipt. or as
n.,
= a house-to-house collection, search, etc.
| 1859 Kingsley in Life (1879) II. 96 (D.) Unless you had a complete house-to-house visitation of a government officer. 1879 Farrar St. Paul II. 27 An earnest, incessant, laborious, house-to-house ministry. 1893 Times 27 Apr. 7/2 A house to house canvass by the registrar would be far cheaper. 1936 ‘F. O'Connor’ Bones of Contention 37 We'll make a house-to-house. 1969 B. Weil Dossier IX vi. 44 The house-to-house paid off. We got someone in the mews to talk. 1970 R. Rendell Guilty Thing Surprised xii. 142 Three of us have done a house-to-house in Myfleet. 1973 W. J. Burley Death in Salubrious Place v. 93 The house-to-house and the questionnaire both appear to have covered the ground pretty well. |
14. house of office:
† a. a building or apartment for some domestic purpose,
e.g., a pantry (
obs.);
b. a privy.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. iii. 134 Make in thi ship also, parloures oone or two, And houses of offyce mo. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 161 All houses of office belonging to the same Abbey, were cleane brent. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 292 They..goe first to the house of office, and there purge their bodie. 1652 Boston Rec. (1877) II. 109 It is ordered that noe house of Office..shall stand within twentie foot of any high way. 1823 Byron Juan xi. xl, The very clerks—those somewhat dirty springs Of office, or the house of office. |
† 15. house of religion (also
house of piety): a religious house, a convent.
Obs.| 1419 Earl of Shrewsbury in Excerpta Historica (1831) 42 No Hous of religion, ne non other place having saufgarde. 1517 R. Torkington Pilgr. (1884) 5 A howse of Religion, of Chanons reguler, and ffryers Austyns. 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 22 Another thing very memorable and imitable in Italy, is the exceeding good provision of Hospitalls and houses of Pietie. |
** With verbs. (
break up house: see
break v. 57 d.
bring down the house: see
bring 15
f. set up house: see
set.)
† 16. hold house:
= keep house, 18 a.
Obs.| c 1325 Metr. Hom. 107 Thar als hoswif held scho house. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 51 And þerwiþ holden her hous in harlotes werkes. 1563–7 Buchanan Reform. St. Andros (Wks.) 1892. 6 And he be maryit, or hald hous out of the college. |
17. to play (at) house(s): to play at being a family and running a house (see also
quot. 1968).
| 1871 J. H. Ewing Flat Iron for Farthing (1873) vii. 67 Polly and I had nothing to do.., which led us into the very reprehensible habit of ‘playing at houses’ in Uncle Ascott's gorgeously furnished pew. Ibid. 71 You know we couldn't play houses in the church where papa goes. 1918 K. Mansfield Lett. to J. M. Murry (1951) 220 They always seem to think we were so very very young at the Villa Pauline—playing houses—going to bed under the table for a minute with the cloth pulled down for a blind. 1957 J. Kirkup Only Child ix. 120 If we were lucky, and the weather was fine, we would be allowed to have tea in our tent, and to play houses with the fireside things—the tongs, the little brush, the shovel and the ash-rake. 1959 H. Gardner So what else is New? xiv. 140 ‘Let's play house, Sally,’ the boy said. 1968 Sun (Baltimore) 18 Sept. B7/8 He's tried several times to get me to go to his apartment. I've always refused... I'm not ready to play house yet. 1969 Gish & Pinchot Lillian Gish ii. 17 Whenever Dorothy and I were in the same company with Mother, our favorite game was to go to the theater early, dress in Mother's clothes, and play house on stage. |
18. keep house.
a. To maintain and preside over a household; also (usually
to keep one's house), to have one's abode, reside (
in a place); also
fig.| 1535 Coverdale Ps. cxii[i]. 9 Which maketh the baren woman to kepe house. 1548 Hall Chron., Rich. III 52 Kynge Rycharde at this ceason kepynge his howse in the Castell of Notyngham. 1608 Day Hum. out of Br. i. i. (1881) 8 When the fiery spirit of hot youth Kept house within me. 1702 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) V. 172 Her majestie will not begin to keep house as queen till the 1st of July. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 24 In this the children play'd at keeping house. 1890 Temple Bar Mag. Sept. 43 The pair began to keep house upon love and hope. |
b. With qualifying words: To provide (well, liberally, etc.) for the household, or (
esp.) for visitors or guests;
esp. to keep open house, to provide hospitality for visitors generally.
| 1530 Palsgr. 597/1 The kyng is determyned to kepe house or open house this Christemas. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V 65 b, He kept a liberall hous to all commers. 1608 Shakes. Timon iii. i. 24 Alas, good Lord, a Noble Gentleman 'tis, if he would not keep so good a house. 1662 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. verse 18 xiv. §2 (1669) 461/2 If the Trade fails in the Shop, there is but a poor house kept within. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 269 ¶8 Sir Roger..always keeps open House at Christmas. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 366 The King kept open house every day, and all day long, for the good society of London. |
c. To manage the affairs of a household; to take charge of the house, and perform or direct domestic duties or work. (See also
housekeeper, -keeping.)
| c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 138 Ther nys no wyf the hous to kepe. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iv. 101, I may call him my Master..for I keepe his house; and I wash, ring..make the beds, and doe all my selfe. 1796 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. iv. (1813) 11 Miss Bingley is to live with her brother, and keep his house. 1891 Cornh. Mag. July 57 She meant to keep house for her father. |
d. (Usually
to keep one's house or the house): To stay indoors; to be confined to the house, as by illness; also
fig.; to stay in the house for the purpose of guarding it.
| 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 4 Sundrie persons..kepe their houses, not mindinge to paie..their debts. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 146 Beyng sicke, and therefore kepyng his house. 1608 Bp. Hall Char. Virtues & V. i. 6 Both his eyes are never at once from home, but one keeps house while the other roves abroad for intelligence. 1794 A. M. Bennett Ellen II. 62 Sure, there is no necessity for us to keep house till she arrives. 1822 Sir C. Abbott in Barnewall & Cresswell Rep. I. 61 Did not the bankrupt begin to keep house as a mode of absenting himself with an intent to delay his creditors? 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 822 Weakening the man, till he could do no more, But kept the house, his chair and last his bed. |
e. to keep a house: see 4 d.
19. Proverbial Phrases. (All
colloq.)
† to pull (bring) an old house on one's head: to get oneself into trouble (
obs.). Also,
to pull a house over one's head.
† atop of the house: in a state of excitement or passion (
obs.);
cf. up in the house-roof (sense 19).
to throw (fling) the house out of the windows (
= Fr. jeter la maison par les fenêtres): to put everything into confusion.
like a house on fire (afire): as fast as a house would burn; very fast or vigorously.
as safe as houses: perfectly safe.
to go (all) round the houses:
fig. to beat about the bush, to reach the point in a lengthy or roundabout way.
to put (or set) one's (own) house in order: to arrange one's affairs properly.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents (1658) 658 You shall pull an old house over your own head by a further provocation. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Knt. Burn. Pestle iii. v, We are at home now; where, I warrant you, you shall find the house flung out of the windows. 1611 Bible 2 Kings 20:1 And the Prophet Isaiah the sonne of Amos came to him, and saide vnto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not liue. 1673 S. C. Art of Complaisance 130 If any trick or foul play be offered, we are not to be presently a top on the house. 1739 J. Hildrop Regul. Freethinking 7 He..will have good Luck if he does not pull an old House upon his Head. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. (1824) 291 At it they went like five hundred houses on fire. 1837 Dickens in Forster Life I. vi. 107, I am getting on..like ‘a house o'fire’, and think the next Pickwick will bang all the others. 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sport & Adv. Scotl. vi. (1855) 77 Would not..Stubbs throw the house out of the windows? 1859 Cornwallis New World I. 79 The owner of the weapon assured him that he was as safe as houses. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. iii. 53 You'll have less pleasure in pulling the house over my head, when your own skull's to be broken too. 1871 Hardy Desperate Remedies III. iv. 92, I shall be high-treasoned—as safe as houses. 1880 E. W. Hamilton Diary 25 Apr. (1972) I. 3 Layard has telegraphed from Constantinople that the Turk is becoming really alive to the necessity of ‘putting his house in order’—(if that broken-down establishment will admit of repair). 1913 E. Phillpotts Widecombe Fair v. 36 They say things, and do things, and even think things, that you'd fear must throw the house out of windows, and wreck the home for evermore. 1923 J. S. Huxley Ess. Biologist vii. 292 The theologians..fail in the majority of cases to set their own house in order, to organize the inner reality to react with the outer. 1932 ‘A. Bridge’ Peking Picnic xix. 238 Kidnapping Frenchmen is simply too unremunerative for words, whereas we're a perfect gold mine, safe as houses. 1949 A. Wilson Wrong Set 49 You had better put your own house in order before you go listening to wicked lies. 1955 Times 31 Aug. 7/5 If the conservative parties did not put their houses in order, Japan would soon see a Socialist Government in power. 1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights 129 Alright but I wish you wouldn't go all round the houses. 1965 V. Canning Whip Hand iv. 43 You mean your little story..wasn't true?.. You went a hell of a way round the houses about this. 1965 New Statesman 14 May 749/3 Such a policy of firmness would make it clear to all that we are determined to put our economic house in order. |
III. Attributive uses and Combinations.
20. attrib. Of or belonging to a house.
a. Forming part of, or an adjunct to, a house; as
house-back,
house-bell,
† house-cop (
= house-top),
house-drain,
house-eaves (
house-eavesing),
house-end,
house-front,
house-gate,
house-gutter,
house-number,
house-paddock (
Austral.),
house-pile,
house-plat,
house-plot,
house-roof,
house-side,
house-site,
house-wall,
house-window,
house-wiring,
† house-wough (
= wall);
house-door.
b. Used or kept in a house, as
house-broom,
house-clock,
house-cloth,
house-flannel,
house-linen,
house-plant,
house-sand,
house-telephone (also
house-phone); worn in the house, as
house-boot,
house-dress,
house-frock,
house-gown,
house-jacket,
house-shoe,
house-slipper.
c. Belonging to or connected with a house or household; performed or carried on in the house; domestic; as
house affairs,
house business,
house education,
house expense,
house fire,
house game,
† house hire,
house life,
house rent,
house service,
house sport,
house talk,
house work.
d. Of persons: Belonging to the household; dwelling in, or employed in or about, a house; as
house-chaplain,
house-child,
house-folk,
house-priest,
house-servant,
house-slave,
house-steward; also
house-father, etc.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 147 Still the *house Affaires would draw her hence. 1862 D. G. Rossetti Let. 22 Feb. (1965) II. 443 House-affairs get still further complicated. |
| 1913 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. ii. 29 He..wished that he could disappear in such company round corner after corner of the world beyond the grey *house-backs. 1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 69 Between this path and the house-backs there are some small yards. |
| a 1817 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1818) II. xiii. 249 The loud noise of the *house-bell. 1834 Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. III. 414/1 He rung the teacher's house-bell. 1921 W. de la Mare Crossings 88 The far-away house-bell clangs into the room. |
| 1652 R. Verney Let. in M. M. Verney Mem. (1894) III. ii. 46 Sir Ralph is much taken with some ‘old men's *house boots’, called Scarfaroni. 1914 Joyce Dubliners 123 Then she took off her working skirt and her house-boots. |
| 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 168 Lime-wash..applied..with a brush or *house-broom. |
| 1669 Woodhead St. Teresa ii. xxx. 189 Humble and desirous of doing all the *House-business. |
| 1690 Lond. Gaz. No. 2578/4 A Large *House-Clock..is now in the hands of Jonathan Puller. |
| 1597 T. Deloney Jacke Newb. (1630) sig. G3, [They] put an *house-cloath about his necke in stead of a fine towell. 1934 H. G. Wells Exper. Autobiogr. I. iv. 149 Rolls of crash, house cloth, ticking and the like. |
| 1388 Wyclif Ps. cxxviii[i]. 6 Be thei maad as the hey of *hous coppis. |
| 1897–8 Kalendar R. Inst. Brit. Archit. 278 Ventilation of *house-drains. |
| 1897 McClure's Mag. X. 66 She looked charming in her long, soft *house-dress. 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 2 Apr. 9/5 House Dresses in V-neck style with kimona sleeves, pockets and belt, open down the front and come in stripes, checks and plain colors. 1966 ‘S. Ransome’ Hidden Hour iv. 50 A woman wearing a house dress, evidently one of the tenants. |
| 1382 Wyclif Ps. ci[i]. 7 As a nyȝt rauen in the *hous euese. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. ii. 186 Sparrowes must not build in his house-eeues. |
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxx. 49 With him me thocht all the *houshend [v.r. hous end] he towk. 1682 Bunyan Holy War (Cassell) xi. 248 Nor had he stood long under the house-end. |
| 1595 Spenser Epithal. 340 Ne let *housefyres..Fray vs. |
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3139 Euerilc *hus-folc ðe mai it ðauen. |
| 1925 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 28 A neat, trim gingham *house or porch frock is an asset to every woman's wardrobe. 1952 C. W. Cunnington Eng. Women's Clothing iv. 135 House-frocks are now all-important as a result of the war economies. |
| 1838 Dickens O. Twist l, *House-fronts projecting over the pavement. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 12 Dec. 9/1 The house-fronts of miles and miles of London streets are entirely carried on iron girders. 1963 Times 4 June 11/7 The drabness of house-fronts, that so deceive the casual visitor. |
| 1832 Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. I. 121/3 Sometimes the fit takes the direction of a new gown for going out with on bad days,..at another time ‘a *house gown’. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 23 Apr. 3/3 Alpaca makes a practical and pretty house-gown. |
| c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 800/20 Hoc stellocidum, a *howsegoter. |
| c 1325 Poem Times Edw. II 159 in Pol. Songs (Camden) 330 For *hous-hire ne for clothes he ne carez noht. |
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 452 In *housejacket of ripplecloth. 1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 1 Jan. 11/1 (Advt.), Christmas Goods Now on Sale. Dressing Gowns, House Jackets, Ties, [etc.]. |
| 1857 Mrs. Gaskell Let. 7 Dec. (1966) 492 Then we came home; and have been desperately busy ever since, looking over stores, and clothes, and *house-linen, and preserves. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 8 Nov. 5/2 No arrangements had been made for her reception. There was no silver, no house-linen. |
| 1850 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 135 My *house-money is utterly done. |
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 396/2 *House numbers, 3 inch, made of brass and nicely nickel plated. 1972 C. Weston Poor, Poor Ophelia (1973) vi. 29 Casey began looking for house numbers. |
| 1908 Mrs. A. Gunn We of Never-Never vi. 64 To the north-west are the stock-yards and *house paddock—a paddock of five square miles. 1951 J. K. Ewers in Murdoch & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories 335 The scrawny gums by the house-paddock. |
| 1908 S. Ford Side-Stepping with Shorty ix. 137 There was no answer to the call on the *house 'phone. 1935 Archit. Rev. LXXVIII. 73 Raymond McGrath designed standard signal lights, clocks, buzzer and house-phone mountings. 1970 ‘W. Haggard’ Hardliners i. 11 There was a house-phone on the impressive desk. |
| 1930 M. Mead Growing up in New Guinea ii. 13 Around the stout *house-piles the tides run. 1970 R. Lowell Notebk. 47 Where the Brook Trout dolphins by the housepiles, Grows common..as hamburger. |
| 1873 Young Englishwoman Nov. 562/2 Those who have cultivated *house plants for years. 1889 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 19 Jan. 2/4 On the cultivation of house-plants. 1970 D. Bartrum Exotic Plants for Home ii. 29 All the house plants we buy from the florists are amenable to pot culture. |
| 1636 Boston Rec. (1877) II. 12 William Hudson hath sould an *housplott and garden. |
| 1531 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Rec. for *house rent. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. x. i. (1869) I. 123 There is no city in Europe, I believe, in which house-rent is dearer than in London. |
| c 1220 Bestiary 463 Ðe spinnere..festeð atte *hus rof. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 54 He is at three woordis vp in the house roufe. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xviii. 126 An edge like the ridge of a house-roof. |
| 1743 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Oct. xxii. 238 There are two Sorts of Men Taskers, the Day Labourer, and the constant *House Servant. 1791 Boswell Johnson 11 Apr. an. 1773 Our female house-servants work much harder than the male. 1882 W. D. Hay Brighter Britain I. 37 That's a new dairy-maid and house-servant my friend's just engaged. 1916 Gilbert & Ellice Islands Protect. Rep. for 1914–15 15 The Ellice boy, who is much inferior to the Gilbertese in all things that really matter, makes a better house servant. 1966 B. Kimenye Kalasanda Revisited 23 His house servant was away on leave, and the drawbacks of bachelorhood were making themselves acutely felt. |
| 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. ii. (1883) 10 *House-service is no disgrace to a gentlewoman. |
| 1892 Pall Mall G. 22 Aug. 1/3 Ladies in their *house-shoes and light dresses. |
| 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa i. 52 Vines..planted by an *house-side. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. iv, Steep as a house-side. |
| 1913 J. London Let. 1 Mar. (1966) 373 The hedges around the *house-site. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female ii. 40 Considerations..that one would normally consider in choosing a house-site. |
| 1738 F. Moore Trav. Inland Afr. 110 Some people have a good many *House-Slaves..and they live so well and easy, that it is sometimes a very hard Matter to know the Slaves from their Masters. 1962 S. Wynter Hills of Hebron vi. 81 His master was fond of him and made his mother a house-slave so that Cato could grow up in the big house. 1972 Village Voice (N.Y.) 1 June 24/1 Whitey has always pitted one black against the other. The field slaves and the house slaves. |
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 512/1 Ladies' toilet and *house slippers. 1965 B. Sweet-Escott Baker St. Irreg. vi. 161 His feet encased in a pair of black velvet house-slippers embroidered in white with the letters ‘A.E.’ |
| 1607 Markham Caval. iii. (1617) 1 What *House-sport is it which hath not from it [Hunting] some imitation? |
| 1758 Johnson Idler No. 29 ¶8 The *house-steward used to employ me. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 304 The house-steward of the amalgamated cats' and dogs' home was in attendance. |
| 1854 Emerson Soc. Aims Wks. (Bohn) III. 174 In their games and in their *house-talk. |
| 1889 Telephone I. xxiii. 534/1 The installation of a *house telephone recommends itself in large hotels. 1921 [see camouflage v.]. 1950 T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party ii. 94 The house-telephone rings. 1968 J. Fleming Hell's Belle i. 34 The humblest hotel in Paris has a house-telephone. |
| 1856 W. L. Lindsay Brit. Lichens 35 In a scale-like or *house-tile-like manner. |
| 1836–48 B. D. Walsh Aristoph., Acharn. i. iv, Scribbling on the *house-walls. |
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia i. Wks. 1725 I. 41 With..shot from corners of streets, and *house-windows. |
| 1901 Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 616/1 We now propose to consider installations which require, in addition to the ordinary *house-wiring, the machinery necessary for the production of the electric current. 1963 Times 6 May p. vii/2 The traditional type of housewiring involved separate circuits for the different kinds of load. |
| a 1899 Mod. Advt., A young girl to do general *housework. |
| c 1325 Femina (MS. Trin. Coll. Cambr. B 14. 39 lf. 122 b), *Houswoghes makyn hous sur. |
21. Applied to animals kept in or about a house (
= domestic, tame), as
house-bee,
house-cat,
house-cock,
house-hen,
house-pigeon,
house-weasel; or frequenting or infesting houses, as
house-ant,
house-finch,
house-lizard,
house-wren: see also 24; (
cf. field n. 19). Also
house-dog, -dove, -lamb.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 320 Of domestical and tame *house-Bees, there are two sorts. |
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 107 Her tayle longer then an ordinary *house cats. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 259 They are in size and colour exactly the same with our house-cats. 1963 B. Vesey-Fitzgerald Cat Owner's Encycl. 54 But we do not know which species it was that first became the house-cat. 1973 R. Ludlum Matlock Paper vii. 61 His clumsy, long-haired house cat had knocked over a stray glass. |
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 166 b, Of the *house Cocke and the Hen. |
| 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles ii. 143 Rith as þe *hous-hennes..hacchen, And cherichen her chekonys. |
| 1599 H. Buttes Dyets drie Dinner K vij, The *house or tame Pigeon. c 1613 Middleton No Wit like a Woman's v. i, Not toy, nor bill, and imitate house-pigeons. |
22. Objective and
obj. genitive, as
house-bearing adj.,
house-burner,
house-burning,
house decoration,
house-decorator,
house-furnisher,
house-furnishing,
house-hunt vb. (
hunt v. 3),
house-hunter,
house-hunting,
house-letting,
house-move n.,
house-moving,
house-owner,
house-robbing,
house-sweeper, etc.
| 1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 26 Large Shoals of slow *House-bearing Snails. |
| c 1250 Old Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 30 Manslechtes, *Husberners, Bakbiteres, and alle oþre euele deden. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. VI. xlviii. 293 Among the captives there were house-burners and assassins. |
| a 1300 Cursor M. 26235 Mans slaghter and *hus brening. 1651 G. W. tr. Cowel's Inst. 267 House-burning doth not onely extend to Houses and Barnes wherein Corn is laid up; but also to those heaps which we call Mowes, Stacks, or Reeks, if they be near unto Houses. |
| 1880 H. C. St. John Wild Coasts Nipon 224 Their younger sisters..go about their duties of *house-caring and nursing. |
| 1881 C. C. Harrison Woman's Handiwork i. 4 Industrial arts applied to *house-decoration. 1914 W. Owen Let. 11 Aug. (1967) 276 She has an important business..selling House Decorations, Embroideries, and so on. |
| 1911 G. S. Porter Harvester xv. 321 As a *house decorator you surpass yourself. 1929 F. M. Ford Let. 14 Sept. (1965) 189 House-decorators find that books work into rooms with admirable effect. 1935 Burlington Mag. July 44/2 The colouring of cupboards and friezes and similar house-decorators' tasks. |
| 1812 Byron Ch. Har. ii. xiv. (Orig. Draft), *House-furnisher withal, one Thomas hight. |
| 1896 Daily News 21 May 8/1 The Lares, the *house-haunting spirits of ancestors. |
| 1888 Athenæum 15 Dec. 806/1 Mrs. Austin at this time..*house-hunted for the Carlyles. |
| 1821 Shelley Let. To Mrs. S. 1 Aug., That which is necessary for *house-hunting. 1831 A. A. Watts Scenes Life & Shades Char., House-hunting, A tolerable..insight into the mysteries of House-hunting. 1930 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 July 625/2 To engage playfully in house-hunting. 1960 Guardian 15 Feb. 4/2 Her recent house-hunting in London. |
| 1839 Dickens Let. 19 Nov. (1965) I. 603, I am in the agonies of *house-letting, house-taking, title-proving, [etc.]. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 1 Oct. 2/2 The Scotch House-Letting and Rating Bill. |
| 1923 E. Bowen Encounters 92, I shouldn't have thought that a *house-move was exactly the most leisurely time. 1961 Times 17 Aug. 11/2 Rearranging my books..after a house-move. |
| 1926 R. Macaulay Crewe Train ii. x. 184 I'm extraordinarily sleepy, with all this *house-moving. |
| 1898 Edin. Rev. Apr. 417 He wrote..for cultivated *house-owners. |
| 1670 Blount Law Dict., *House-robbing or House-breaking. |
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Ballieur de maison, a *house sweeper. |
| 1897 Daily News 16 Mar. 6/5 If there are many odd trades there are also some very disagreeable ones. None more so, I should fancy, than that of the *housewrecker. |
23. Locative, instrumental, etc., as
house-burial,
house-wear;
house-bred,
house-fed,
house-feeding,
house-going adjs.;
house-encompassed,
house-proud adjs.;
house-feed vb.| 1848 Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. ii. 67 Our *house-bred foe, the adder in our bosoms. |
| 1891 Tablet 12 Sept. 437 The tradition of *house-burial seems maintained in other ways. |
| 1895 Daily News 20 Dec. 2/6 *House-fed lambs and Berkshire pigs are here in abundance. |
| 1846 Warnes in J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 115 One acre will *house-feed three bullocks, whereas it will require three acres to graze them in the field. |
| 1804 W. Tennant Ind. Recreat. (ed. 2) II. 81 Turnips, cabbages, clover, and all the articles of *house-feeding. |
| 1885 Times (weekly ed.) 16 Oct. 15/2 A *house-going clergy would make a church⁓going people. |
| 1898 Daily News 10 Jan. 6/5 For *housewear it is admirable. |
24. Special Combinations:
house-agent, an agent employed (by the landlord or owner) in the sale and letting of houses, the collection of rents, etc.;
house appointment, a position as a house-physician or house-surgeon in a hospital;
house arrest, detention in one's house; also (with hyphen) as
v.;
house-author, an author employed by a theatre;
house-ball, a boys' game in which one player throws a ball against the wall of a house, and the other strikes it with a bat when it rebounds;
house-barge = house-boat;
house bill, (
a) a poster or programme describing a theatrical performance; (
b) a bill of exchange drawn by a business house on itself;
† house-bird = house-dove 2;
house-book, a book for household accounts;
house-bound a., confined to the house;
house-boy, a boy employed as servant in a house;
house-burnt a. U.S., designating tobacco which in the course of being cured in a tobacco-house has been injured or spoilt by disease; so
house-burn v. intr. and (rare)
trans., to become or render house-burnt; also
house-burning vbl. n.;
house call, a visit made to a patient in his own home by a doctor, chiropodist, etc.;
house cap, a school cap made of the colours adopted by a particular house,
esp. one awarded for proficiency in games;
house-car (
U.S.), ‘a box-car; a closed railroad-car for carrying freight’;
house-carpenter, a tradesman who does the wood-work of a house;
house-caucus (see
quot.);
house-chambermaid, a servant combining the functions of housemaid and chambermaid;
house church (see
quot. 1967);
house-cleaning n., the cleaning of the inside of a house; hence (as a back-formation)
house-clean v.; also
transf.;
house-cleaner, one who cleans the inside of a house;
house-club, a club (athletic or other) in a house of business;
house-coal, coal suitable for house fires;
house-coat, a woman's informal coat-dress for wearing at home;
house colours [
colour n.1 6 c], colours representing a house (sense 4 c above) at a school;
house-cricket, the common species of cricket (
Acheta domestica) frequenting houses (as distinguished from the
field-cricket);
house detective, a private detective employed by a business firm, hotel, etc.;
house detention = house arrest;
house dinner, a dinner given to the staff or the occupants of a house at a school, etc.;
house-duty, a tax imposed on inhabited houses in England;
house-dweller, one who lives in a house (
opp. a nomad, etc.); so
house-dwelling;
house-engine (
Mech.), a steam-engine structurally dependent on the building in which it is contained;
house-factor = house-agent;
house-farmer (see
quot.); so
house-farming;
house-fast a. (
dial.)
= house-bound;
house finch, a red-headed N. American finch of the genus
Carpodacus,
esp. C. mexicanus;
house-flag, the distinguishing flag of a shipping or other business house;
house-fly, the common fly (
Musca domestica);
house-furnishing, the furnishing of a house; also
pl. in concrete sense;
house-girl, a female domestic servant or, formerly, a slave;
house-god, a household god;
pl. = penates;
house governor, the head of administration in a hospital;
house-green, a name for the houseleek;
house guest, a guest staying in a private house;
† house-head = house-top;
house-help (
U.S.), a domestic servant or ‘help’ (see
help n. 3 c);
house-husband orig. U.S., a husband who carries out the household duties traditionally associated with the role of housewife;
house-jobber,
-knacker = house-farmer;
house journal: see sense 4 f (iv) above;
† house-lady, lady or mistress of the house;
† house-lewe (
OE. h{uacu}s-hleow,
ME. hus lewe),
-lewth, shelter of a house;
house-lighter (see
quot., and
cf. house-boat);
house lights, lights on the audience side of the stage curtain in a theatre;
house-line Naut., a small line of three strands, used for seizings, etc. (also called
housing);
house longhorn,
longicorn (beetle),
Hylotrupes bajulus, a wood-boring beetle of the family Cerambycidæ;
† house-loom = heirloom;
† house-lord (
OE. h{uacu}s-hlaford), lord or master of the house;
house magazine: see sense 4 f (iv) above;
house-manager, the manager of a theatre, club, concert-hall, etc.;
house-martin, the common martin (
Chelidon urbica);
house-monger, a dealer in houses (
opprobrious);
house moth, either of two moths,
Hofmannophila pseudospretella or
Endrosis sarcitrella;
house mouse,
Mus musculus, which lives in buildings as well as in open fields;
house-mover N. Amer., (
a) a person whose business is to move furniture; (
b) a machine or apparatus for the physical removal of houses;
house Negro,
house nigger U.S. (
rare exc. Hist.), a Negro household servant;
house officer, a junior full-time member of the medical staff of a hospital, usually (but not always) resident;
esp. one whose post is tenable by qualified doctors who are not yet fully registered;
house organ: see sense 4 f (iv) above;
house-painter, an artificer who paints and decorates houses; so
house-painting;
house-parent, a house-mother or house-father acting singly or jointly as head of a community of (young) persons living together as a family;
house-parlourmaid (
cf. house-chambermaid);
house-parlourman, a male servant who does work corresponding to that of a house-parlourmaid;
house-party, the guests staying in a house, as distinguished from those invited for the day or less; also
= house-rent party (below);
† house-pentice, a ‘pentice’ or penthouse;
house physician, a resident physician in a hospital or other public institution, now usually (in Great Britain) a house officer working in the field of general medicine;
house-pride, pride in one's house, desire to keep one's house clean and tidy; so
house-proud a., proud of one's house, desirous to see it always at its best (sometimes implying excessive preoccupation with it);
house-raiser, one who raises or builds a house;
house-raising (
U.S.), ‘a gathering of the inhabitants in a thinly settled district to assist a neighbor in raising the frame of his house’ (
Cent. Dict.);
house-rent party U.S.,
orig. a party aimed at raising money to pay the rent of a house; later, any ‘jam’ session in a house or apartment; also
house-rent stomp,
house-rent strut;
house-ridden a., confined to the house (after
bedridden);
house seat, a seat in a theatre, etc., reserved by the management for special guests;
† house-shouldered a., having shoulders sloping on each side like the roof of a house;
house-shrew, the common shrew-mouse (
Crocidura (
Sorex)
aranea);
† house-sin, a private or secret sin;
† house-snail, a shell-snail (
cf. 7 b);
house-sparrow, the common sparrow (
Passer domesticus), which builds in the eaves and roofs of houses;
house-spider, any species of spider infesting houses, as
Tegenaria domestica or
Theridium vulgare;
house style, the distinctive printing methods and regulations, including the preferred spellings and conventions of punctuation, of a publishing or printing business; also
transf.;
house surgeon, a resident surgeon in a hospital, now usually (in Great Britain) a house officer working in the field of surgery;
house-swallow, the common swallow (
Hirundo rustica);
house-tablemaid (
cf. house-chambermaid);
house-tax, a tax levied on houses (
= house-duty);
house-trap, a portable bird-trap made of wire netting in which bait has been laid;
house-type, a type of house;
house-urn, a cinerary urn of the form of a round cabin with a conical roof, also called
hut-urn;
house-wagon, a wagon serving as a house for a company of travellers, a caravan;
house-waitingmaid (
cf. house-chambermaid);
housewares n. pl. (chiefly
N. Amer.), kitchen utensils and other utilitarian household articles;
† house-wood, wood for housebote;
house-work, the work required to keep a house clean and in order;
house-wrecker = housebreaker 2;
house wren, the common N. American brown wren,
Troglodytes aedon.
| 1843 Ainsworth's Mag. IV. 64 *House-agents and auctioneers are their attendant sprites. 1873 Miss Thackeray Wks. (1891) I. 362 He had begun life as a house-agent. 1922 T. S. Eliot Waste Land (1923) iii. 16 A small house agents' clerk. |
| 1961 Lancet 26 Aug. 497/1 After *house-appointments he graduated m.d. in 1900. 1963 Ibid. 19 Jan. 176/1 After holding house-appointments, he became an assistant bacteriologist in the Glasgow public-health laboratories. |
| 1936 F. L. Schuman Hitler & Nazi Dictatorship Epilogue ii. 441 He was subjected to ‘*house arrest’ for his protection. 1945 M. Allingham Coroner's Pidgin xv. 126 In the normal way when I put a person under house arrest and she breaks it, I pull her in. 1948 A. Koestler in Partisan Rev. XV. i. 33 All of them are..in fact, under a kind of curfew or house arrest. 1958 Listener 13 Nov. 762/2 Galileo lived the remaining years of his life under house arrest. 1963 Economist 31 Aug. 732/2 The Hodgsons, banned, house-arrested and persecuted in South Africa. 1970 New Yorker 17 Oct. 179/1 The Chinese continue to support Prince Sihanouk, who is said to be living under house arrest in Peking. 1971 Rand Daily Mail 4 Sept. 12/4 Father Desmond was banned and house arrested after the book was published, probably for daring to write it. |
| 1864 P. Paterson Glimpses Real Life xxvii. 262 August, or even earlier, when the ‘*house-author’ and the manager determine what it [sc. the pantomine] is to be. 1903 Daily Chron. 6 July 7/4 He was house-author to a theatre at Sydney. |
| 1884 Times (weekly ed.) 19 Sept. 124 A crannoge must have united..the charms of solitude and social facilities. A *house barge could scarcely be better. |
| 1829 H. Foote Compan. to Theatres 138 The usual bills of the theatres are termed *house bills. 1909 Daily Chron. 2 Mar. 3/2 That particular bill of exchange, the ‘house bill’—a bill drawn by a firm or company on itself. |
| 1623 tr. Favine's Theat. Hon. i. vi. 50 They were reputed no other than *hous-birds or homelings. |
| 1768 Wilkes Corr. (1805) III. 286, I beg my dear girl to buy a *house-book, and to set down all expences. |
| 1878 Harper's Mag. Jan. 277/1 The rains set in furiously, and I was completely *house-bound. 1960 Sunday Express 10 July 11/4 His ailing, house-bound wife is attended to by a home help. 1966 New Statesman 21 Jan. 80/3 Housebound married graduates. |
| 1899 Daily News 8 June 5/7 Odd jobs as boot and knife cleaning, or where the boys are described as ‘*house-boys’. 1910 Cape Times 8 Oct. 2 House-boy; good references;..apply 6, St. Barnabas Street. 1926 S. G. Millin S. Africans iii. i. 74 There might be black houseboys instead of white housemaids. 1944 Living off Land viii. 159 He [sc. a Papuan] may be an experienced ‘house-boy’ in which case he will make his own arrangements for employment. 1955 B. Manvers Shadow of Happiness i. 19 That's my houseboy; he has an unpronounceable name, so I call him John. 1971 E. Afr. Jrnl. Mar. 5/1 She is procured by the African houseboys for their employer—a white expatriate. |
| 1640 Archives of Maryland (1883) I. 98 Bad Tobacco shall be judged ground leafes, Second Crops leafs, notably brused or worm eaten, or leaves *house burnt, sun burnt, [etc.]. 1772 Maryland Hist. Mag. (1919) XIV. 363 For 3 weeks past the Weather has been very unfavourable for the tob[acc]o Cured by fier very much & I suppose has House burnt all tob[acc]o not fierd. 1850 Rep. Comm. Patents Agric. 1849 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 321 Splitting tobacco is admired by many who contend that it cures brighter..and [is] less likely to house-burn. Ibid. 324 In this crop every leaf was saved, none lost by worms nor by ‘house-burning’ (that is suffering, or even rotting from being hung too thick). 1897 Bradstreet's 25 Oct. 1/4 Some of the leading growers report several crops as ‘house burnt’ and inclined to rot. 1966 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. XLV. 16 Tobacco will house burn in wet weather if you don't fire it. |
| 1960 R. H. Blum Managem. Doctor–Patient Relationship ix. 203 The readiness of the physician to make *house calls is important to patients. 1973 R. C. Dennis Sweat of Fear xii. 85, I opened the door, and there she was... I said, ‘Doctor, I didn't know you made house calls.’ |
| 1899 Kipling in Windsor Mag. Dec. 33/1 ‘S'pose we're collared?’ said Beetle, cramming his red and black *house-cap into his pocket. 1907 Daily Chron. 15 June 4/7 The pride of a little boy who wins his house cap at school. |
| 1856 W. Ferguson Amer. by River & Rail 338, I was glad to withdraw myself and my stool within the doorway of a *house-car, as the covered freight-trucks are called. 1858 Pennsylvania Rail Road Ann. Rep. 14 The Rolling Stock..consisted..of..Eight-wheeled House Cars. |
| 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2380/4 William Bowell of Brighthelmston..*House-Carpenter. 1741 W. Stephens Jrnl. 1 Apr. in Colonial Rec. Georgia (1908) IV. Suppl. 118 The other was looked on as a Master House-Carpenter of Repute. 1758 in S. M. Hamilton Lett. to Washington (1899) II. 365 And all this without one farthing expence (except about nine pence per day to the best house Carpenters). 1855 Knickerbocker XLVI. 222 Beech timber is held in great esteem by ship-builders and house-carpenters. |
| 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxxiii. 596 What the Americans call ‘*House caucuses’, i.e. meetings of a party in the larger House of the legislature, are not uncommon in England. |
| Mod. Advt., As *House-chambermaid in Hotel. Commercial preferred. |
| 1964 New Society 26 Mar. 5/2 Four *house-churches meet regularly on week nights in people's homes in Notting Hill. They are a mixture of discussion, worship, sharing of problems and a social occasion. 1967 D. T. Kauffman Dict. Relig. Terms 239/1 House Church, church program carried out and centered in homes rather than ecclesiastical structures. 1970 Daily Tel. 7 Aug. 10 At the ‘house church’ each member is given a duplicated sheet with questions and information on the subject for discussion. |
| 1865 Mrs. Stowe House & Home Papers 45 He could not come in the spring for then they were *house-cleaning. 1942 Partridge Usage & Abusage 154/2 House-clean or houseclean ‘to clean (the) house’, seems to me to be a permissible—and very convenient—word. 1954 Manch. Guardian Weekly 1 July 2 The sub-committee should houseclean its staff. 1959 ‘J. R. Macdonald’ Galton Case (1960) xii. 93 With all the outside work I do, I don't get time to houseclean. 1959 Time 12 Jan. 26/3 Seldom had a government been so thoroughly housecleaned between midnight and dawn. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 16 May 5/5 A *house-cleaner..who was maddened with liquor, to-day shot..his landlady. |
| 1863 B. Taylor Hannah Thurston ii. 26 The first thing..was immediately to summon old Melinda..whose speciality was *house-cleaning. 1928 Foy & Harlow Clowning through Life 294 The Chicago horror was a blessing in one respect—namely, in that it brought about a country-wide house-cleaning. 1936 Discovery Jan. 16/2 For one beautiful little specimen [of worked flint] the writer was indebted to the house-cleaning of a busy rabbit. 1951 H. Reichenbach Rise Sci. Philos. xviii. 310 A good deal of house-cleaning is necessary before a philosophy of the social sciences can be constructed. 1959 Times 8 June (Latin Amer. Suppl.) 1/3 The new Cuban leaders are bitter that world opinion is now outraged by their house-cleaning methods. 1965 F. Sargeson Mem. Peon iv. 91 A char whom she employed for house-cleaning duties. 1969 New Yorker 31 May 72/3 A real political house-cleaning. |
| 1867 W. W. Smyth Coal & Coalmining 69 The uppermost notable seam is the well-known *house coal. |
| 1916 in Vogue (1966) 15 Oct. 3/1 (Advt.), Artificial Silk Sports or *House Coat in pretty, quiet striped colourings. 1937 New Yorker 16 Jan. 48/2 The Bendel negligee department is famous for its housecoats. 1946 ‘S. Russell’ To Bed with Grand Music viii. 105 He came back..to find Deborah in a house-coat, cooking supper. 1958 ‘A. Gilbert’ Death against Clock 45 She was in a house-coat—that's what they call dressing-gowns these days. 1973 J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 50 She..slipped a housecoat over her nightdress and made her way downstairs. |
| 1914 ‘I. Hay’ Lighter Side School Life viii. 224 Have you got your *House colours? 1939 ‘G. Orwell’ in Crit. Ess. (1946) 63 That mystic world of quadrangles and house-colours. 1961 D. Bates Fly-Switch from Sultan xix. 106 So I started a brothel... It was run on the best public-school lines, and there were prefects and houses and in a manner of speaking there were house colours as well. |
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 349 The *House-cricket, whose voice is so well known behind a country fire in a winter's evening. |
| 1898 McClure's Mag. X. 525/2 A *house detective [had] observed the whole transaction. 1922 F. Scott Fitzgerald Beautiful & Damned ii. i. 135 The group was joined by the hastily summoned house-detective. 1939 M. Allingham Mr Campion & Others 178 [He] was quite an ornament in the City police... When he retired he received the job of house detective here. 1969 J. Wainwright Take-Over Man v. 75 It's your reputation. Don't blame me if the house detective finds us and boots us out of the servants' entrance. |
| 1958 New Statesman 3 May 555/2, I found an old journalist friend in his second year of *house detention because he had been courageous enough to buck the army. |
| 1870 E. L. Blanchard Diary 7 Apr. in C. W. Scott Life E. L. Blanchard (1891) II. 382 Dine at 7 at Arundel [Club], being the first ‘*house’ dinner proposed. |
| 1851 H. Martineau Hist. Peace (1877) III. iv. xi. 85 The *houseduty—that is nearly the best tax we have. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 1 Oct. 3/3 Many of them who dwell in tents during summer and autumn become *house-dwellers in Wandsworth..during winter. 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Fellowship of Ring i. iv. 101 Most of the inhabitants..were house-dwellers. |
| 1941 ‘R. West’ Black Lamb II. 103 The gypsies..would not dream of going into the church while the *house-dwelling Christians were still about. |
| 1885 1st Rep. R. Comm. Housing Wrkg. Classes 21 The system of middlemen, of house jobbers, *house farmers, or house knackers, for by all these titles are designated those persons who stand between the freeholder and the occupier. 1887 Daily News 16 Mar. 2/5 It is generally within the last ten years of a building lease that houses in London come into the hands of the house farmer, who lets them out in tenements and asks the maximum of rent while doing the minimum of repairs. |
| 1887 Daily News 16 Mar. 2/5 *House farming is admittedly a trade. |
| 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., *Housefast, confined by illness or otherwise, to the house. 1891 Atkinson Moorland Par. 51 She..was still house-fast, or unable to leave the house. |
| 1869 Amer. Naturalist III. 183 About the gardens [in California] is the *House Finch. 1917 T. G. Pearson Birds Amer. III. 7 House Finch... Other names [include] Crimson-fronted Finch; Red-headed Linnet [etc.]. 1961 O. L. Austin Birds of World (1962) 302/2 Very similar to the Purple Finch is the slightly smaller and brighter Mexican House Finch, a common garden bird from California southward through Mexico. |
| 1884 W. C. Russell Jack's Courtship II. iv. 62 [I] turned my eyes aloft where the *house flag..was rattling..at the main royal masthead. |
| a 1450 Fysshynge w. angle (1883) 29 Ye maye angle for hym wyth an *house flye. 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic x. (1833) 259 The house-fly is well known to have the power of walking in an inverted position upon the ceilings of rooms. |
| 1791 Cowper Let. 30 Aug. in Corr. (1904) IV. 117 Such [chairs] as will suit may be found probably at Maurice Smith's, of *house-furnishing memory. 1858 Leslie's Illustr. Weekly 23 Jan. 127 Goods for Winter Use in the Housefurnishing Line. 1865 Mrs. Stowe House & Home Papers 61 That such is not always the case in the real home comes often from the mistakes in the house-furnishing. 1904 Sun (N.Y.) 9 Aug. 8 The feminine preference for garments and house furnishings over locomotives and drop forgings. |
| 1835 M. Morrison Let. 5 Nov. in N. E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 277 We have been intending for some time to buy a *house girl. 1884 J. C. Harris Mingo 91 Jenny, the house-girl, refused to sleep at the quarters. 1906 Dialect Notes III. 141 House-girl, maid of all work. 1945 B. A. Botkin Lay my Burden Down 55 Part white children sold for more than black children. They used them for house girls. 1951 R. Campbell Light on Dark Horse xxiii. 335 We had, at that time, two fine house-girls, the sisters Eugenia and Florentina Diaz y Medina. 1971 E. Afr. Jrnl. Mar. 6/1 Lawino condemns the missionaries who only wanted to make her a house-girl. |
| 1600 Holland Livy ii. xl. 70 There are my *house gods, my mother, my wife, my children. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 54 These Nomades..wander with their House-gods, day and night. |
| 1905 M. F. Reaney Med. Profession iii. 39 The actual daily command is vested in the secretary or *house-governor. 1934 E. MacManus Hosp. Admin. Women i. i. 13 The Secretary or Superintendent, who may be known either as House Governor, or by some other title, may be..a member of the Medical Staff of the Hospital—with wide experience and a gift for administration. 1961 Times 18 July 3/2 (Advt.), Hospital..House Governor and Secretary. 1964 G. L. Cohen What's Wrong with Hospitals? iii. 47 Matron will hand complaints to the Catering Officer, who refers to the House Governor, who sends a memo to the management committee. |
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 88/2 House-leeke..is called generally with us by the name of *House-green. |
| 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 1 Apr. 8/3 Miss Helen MacDonald..invited a number of her girl friends to meet her *house guest, Miss Helen Whiteside. 1961 Times 27 Sept. 16/5 His house-guests hunt in the day. 1970 N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon iii. 61 She was conscious about getting ready for houseguests—her father and stepmother. |
| 1513 Douglas æneis ii. vii. [vi.] 9 Syne to the *hous heid ascendis anone. |
| 1835 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker (1837) 1st Ser. viii. 62 Well, he roared like a bull, till black Lucretia, one of the *house helps, let him go. 1958 Listener 14 Aug. 249/1 Foreign house-helps in London, S.W. 1970 Canadian Antiques Collector Feb. 24/1 Presently in came two well-dressed house-helps, one with a splendid gilt lamp..and another with a tea-tray. |
| 1955 Sci. Amer. Apr. 4/2 To a chemist ‘kitchen-sink fluoridation’ is only a minor nuisance, well worth the little trouble and infinitesimal cost, but the average housewife and *househusband may find it less easy. 1961 Spectator 9 June 857/3 Housewives, and I suppose househusbands, like to find that every well-known branded article (as advertised on television) costs precisely the same from Land's End to John o' Groats. 1986 Sunday Express Mag. 12 Oct. 31/1 John Lennon tried being the house husband for some years, but I'd prefer not to give up my work. |
| 1885 Ld. W. Compton in Pall Mall G. 14 Apr. 1/2 To show the evil results of the middleman or ‘*house-knacker’ system. |
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 414 Marthe mester is uorto ueden & schruden poure men, ase *huselefdi. |
| c 1000 Leges Penit. c. 15 in Thorpe Laws II. 282 Gife his *hus-hleow and mete and munde þam þe þæs beþurfe. a 1240 Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 277 Iþi burð tid in al þe burh of belleem ne fant tu hus lewe. |
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 211 Lie wiþ-outen or geten *houslewth at pore men. |
| 1920 Wodehouse Jill the Reckless (1922) xviii. 260 The *house-lights went up. 1957 Oxf. Compan. Theatre (ed. 2) 465/2 After 1765 the house lights and concealed footlights on traps cover the area in front of the proscenium. |
| 1891 A. J. Foster Ouse 170 The *house-lighter, so called because a part of it makes a cabin for the men. |
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Marline, a small line, somewhat less than *house-line. 1815 Sporting Mag. XLV. 153 My houseline and marline..are equal to any. 1867 [see housing n.1 4]. |
| 1938 Leaflet Forest Prod. Res. XIV. 1 The *House Longhorn beetle (Hylotrupes bajulus L.)..confines its attack to seasoned softwood timbers. Ibid. 2 This leaflet has been prepared to bring the House Longhorn beetle to the notice of architects, builders and property owners. 1962 New Scientist 15 Mar. 614/3 Massive timber struts..were already known to harbour death-watch beetles and the house longicorn. 1964 N. E. Hickin Househ. Insect Pests viii. 83 The House Longhorn Beetle is a pest of softwood. |
| 1697 Evelyn Numism, iii. 68 They..fixt them as *House-looms to the Inheritance. |
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xxii. 11 And secgeað þam *hus⁓hlaforde. a 1240 Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom. 245, I þis hus is þe huse lauerd. |
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 7 Nov. 10/2 Lord Selborne..was once the *house-manager of the club. 1924 Wodehouse Bill the Conqueror xviii. 269 Give it to the house-manager at the Bijou and he'll fix you up with a couple of seats any night you want. 1968 M. Culpan Vasiliko Affair ii. 14 The house-manager, a courteous but wary young man in a dinner jacket. |
| 1767 G. White Selborne x. (1875) 34 The swallow and *house-martin. 1767 Ibid. xvi. 185 House-martins are distinguished..by having their legs covered with soft downy feathers down to their toes. |
| 1604 Rowlands Looke to it. 32 *House-mongers, that on earth would euer dwell: Grinding the poore, as their distresses shoe. 1884 Pall Mall G. 20 Mar. 1 The purchase of fag ends of leases by speculating housemongers. |
| [1897 Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist. & Antiq. Field Club XVIII. 147, I think that this moth is one of the most universally distributed, being found, I expect, in pretty nearly every house in the kingdom.] 1932 Entomologist's Monthly Mag. LXVIII. 77 (title) Borkhausenia pseudospretella and other *house moths. 1966 J. R. Busvine Insects & Hygiene (ed. 2) xiii. 354 The house moths are probably species which originated as feeders on dry vegetable matter and have become adapted to dry animal remains. |
| 1835 L. Jenyns Man. Brit. Vertebr. Animals 31 M[us] Musculus, Linn. (*House Mouse.)—Fur dusky gray above with a tinge of yellow; beneath cinereous. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 17 Sept. 3/1 We do not suppose that the creation of the first house mouse awaited the building of the first house. 1916 G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton Hist. Brit. Mammals II. 635 In all probability the House Mouse is of Asiatic origin. 1964 H. N. Southern Handbk. Brit. Mammals v. 86 Break-back traps used on a large scale for catching House Mice can produce useful figures [for population studies]. |
| 1838 D. Stevenson Sk. Civ. Engin. N. Amer. 316 He and his father..had followed the business of ‘*house-movers’ for fourteen years. 1867 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 106/2 Jedwort had over a house-mover from the North Village. 1959 Times 18 June (Suppl. Queen in Canada) p. vi/3 In all, 525 homes were lifted from their old foundations and, cradled in the steel framework of the housemovers, moved to their new locations. |
| 1711 Boston News-Let. 21 May 2/2 (Advt.), A Young *House-Negro Wench of 19 Years of Age that speaks English to be Sold. 1771 in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1919) XIV. 135 You will have it that my People are not well fed, it is true they do not live so well as our House negroes, But full as well as any Plantation negroes. 1884 J. C. Harris Mingo 191 The house negroes stood in mortal dread of Blue Dave. 1936 M. Mitchell Gone with Wind iii. 49 The house-negroes..considered themselves superior to white trash. |
| 1880 J. C. Harris Uncle Remus (1884) 116 Dey er mighty biggity, dem *house niggers is, but I notices dat dey don't let nuthin' pass. 1970 G. Jackson Let. 4 Apr. in Soledad Brother (1971) 207 This running dog..was transmitting the credo of the slave to our youth, the mod version of the old house nigger. 1971 K. Wheeler Epitaph for Mr. Wynn (1972) xii. 149 Barton called him a house nigger... By Barton's lights, I suppose he was. 1973 Black World June 13/1 The murder of Mrs. Mann by the Black maid in the Bullins play affirms the maid's Blackness and consummates her transition from a foot-shuffling house nigger to a proud Black woman. |
| 1934 E. MacManus Hospital Admin. Women ii. iii. 65 When doing ‘a morning round’ with a House Physician or Surgeon, the Ward Sister will put him in possession of any new facts relating to each patient before they reach that patient's bed. The Sister should stand on one side of the bed, the *House Officer on the other. 1966 Lancet 24 Dec. 1399/1 A man holds a senior house-officer post for up to eighteen months. 1969 S. G. Hill in Milne & Chaplin Mod. Hosp. Managem. iii. 46 In most hospitals and in most specialties, the medical team comprises the consultant who is the senior doctor, the registrar (a doctor of some four or five years' experience), and either a junior house officer (a newly qualified doctor holding a pre-registration post) or senior house officer (a doctor with rather more experience, often from overseas). 1973 Lancet 17 Feb. 17 (Advt.), Burton Road Hospital, Dudley... Applications are invited for the post of Senior House Officer in Geriatrics... Resident staff comprises of 1 Registrar and 2 Senior House Officers. Ibid. (Advt.), Chester City Hospital... Applications are invited for the post of House Officer (Geriatrics), pre- or post-registration... Accommodation will be available. |
| 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2416/4 William Bishop of Reading, a *House Painter. 1756 Rolt Dict. Trade s.v. Painter, House-painter, one who paints things with plain colours, as wainscotting, doors, windows, frames. |
| 1875 E. Spon Workshop Receipts 105/1 *House-Painting.—To produce the different tints, various colours are added to the white-lead base. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1597/2 In house-painting, the pigment most extensively used is white-lead. 1929 D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 602 There were several brushes for house-painting. |
| 1951 M. Buchanan Children's Village 18 There are almost 200 children in the Village now. Each house has in it 15 or 16 boys and girls, their *house-parents,..and a teacher-help. 1964 New Statesman 10 Apr. 582/1 (Advt.), House-parents for African-Asian married students' hostel. |
| Mod. Advt., *House-parlourmaid wanted. Must wait well at table. |
| 1923 Daily Mail 25 Jan. 5 A number of men are becoming *house-parlourmen. 1931 Morning Post 10 Aug. 16/6 House-parlourman Required for maisonette. 1961 Times 17 Oct. 1/3 House-Parlourman wanted. |
| 1876 Trollope Amer. Senator (1877) I. xxiv. 248 Partners were selected within the *house party. 1880 Ouida Moths I. 168 Anybody who is in the same house-party with yourself. 1895 M. Corelli Sorrows Satan xxi, Invitations to our dinners and house-parties. 1956 M. Stearns Story of Jazz (1957) xiii. 145 Its ancestry was long obscured by labels such as ‘house-party’, ‘rent-party’, ‘parlor social’, or simply ‘Harlem’ piano style. 1968 Blues Unlimited Nov. 11 He was around here in town then playing houseparties. |
| 1613 T. Godwin Rom. Antiq. (1658) 16 Sheltred from the rain by the help of boards upheld with forks in manner of *house-pentices. |
| 1753 N. Torriano Gangr. Sore Throat 6 The Fever increasing every Moment, they..sent in the Evening for the *House-Physician. 1905 M. F. Reaney Med. Profession iii. 39 Finally, there is a junior staff of house physicians and surgeons and the like, working directly under the visiting staff, and responsible for the treatment of the patients in their absence. 1934 House physician [see house officer above]. 1962 D. Margerson Med. as Career vi. 42 Two pre-registration posts, those of house physician and house surgeon, must be held before full registration is granted. 1970 New Yorker 23 May 73/3 Alek Primrose plays..a house physician so nearsighted that he sometimes consults closets. |
| 1908 Daily Chron. 3 Nov. 4/7 ‘A Quoi Tient la Superiorité des Anglo-Saxons?’ It is in ‘*house pride’. 1909 Ibid. 7 Dec. 1/2 The ‘instinct of house-pride’ seems almost never entirely wanting in the home studied. 1936 Punch 19 Oct. 600/1 The joke of Felix's housepride continues a trifle too long. |
| 1849 C. Brontë Shirley II. vii. 169 You are what you call *house-proud; you like to have everything handsome about you. 1899 Daily News 17 Oct. 4/7 It is a bad thing for the mother of a family if she cannot be a little ‘house-proud’. 1932 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Sept. 603/2 His wife, house-proud as most North Country women are. 1960 Times 4 Mar. 13/7 Even under discouraging conditions..you will see ample proof of house-proud families. |
| a 1639 Wotton Parall. (J. s.v. House-keeper), We know the people are apter to applaud housekeepers than *houseraisers. |
| 1704 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1866) VIII. 223, I was at my L[and-]Lords *house raising. 1829 Vindicator (Montreal) 22 Dec. 3/2 A man..who, with some others, attended at a house-raising six miles from this town. 1843 Amer. Pioneer II. 451 The frequent necessity for united efforts at house-raisings, log-rollings, corn-huskings, &c. 1857 J. Smith Hist. Jefferson Coll. 17 Conferences..held at log-rollings, house-raisings, or corn-huskings. 1927 J. D. Freeman When West was Young 415 They would..reach the West in time for a big house-raising which would be given them by the entire neighborhood. 1949 Time 2 May 22/2 It was just like an old-fashioned house-raising bee. |
| 1925 Inter-State Tattler 27 Feb. 8/2, I am a tamer of wild women and bitterly against *house-rent parties. 1926 Whiteman & McBride Jazz viii. 177 Big sessions of blues were held in the South among the colored people, the biggest of all at ‘house rent stomps’ when a negro found himself unable to pay his rent. 1938 [see down prep. 2 e]. 1955 Shapiro & Hentoff Hear me talkin to Ya xii. 210 Joe..would bash at numerous functions and house-rent stomps along Carlisle and John Streets. 1956 M. Stearns Story of Jazz (1957) xv. 168 A house-rent party, an unstable social phenomenon that was stimulated by Prohibition and made necessary by the Depression. 1964 W. R. Dixon in J. H. Clarke Harlem 138 The legends of the house rent parties are legion. 1968 Blues Unlimited Nov. 22 There are the more ‘functional’ Texas and Chicago house-rent pianists. |
| 1895 N. & Q. 8th Ser. VIII. 468/2 A poor *house-ridden octogenarian. |
| 1952 W. Granville Dict. Theatr. Terms 100 *House seats, free seats given by courtesy of the house. |
| 1552 Huloet, *House shouldred, dimissis humeris. |
| 1645 Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith xv. (1845) 162 Kept from the incursion of a *house-sin, and a home-bred corruption. |
| 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xvii. (1611) 154 These are called *House-snailes, either because they so carrie their houses upon their backe..or because vsually they breed about old houses. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. Digress. 372 A great, gray, House-Snail (as they call it). |
| 1674 Ray Collect. Words, Eng. Birds 88 The *House-sparrow. 1897 Times 5 Jan. 10/4 House sparrows feed on grain during the winter. |
| 1721 Bradley Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat. 135 The black *House Spider, whose Antennæ are seemingly pointed with Diamonds. 1883 J. G. Wood in Gd. Words Dec. 762/1 The common House-spider..sometimes grows to an enormous size. |
| 1810 Irish Mag. Feb. 67/2 The true riding *housestile is distinguished in every page. 1940 Graves & Hodge Long Week-end xxv. 434 The publisher..has discovered.. the ‘house-style’. 1960 Design July 40/1 The present house style is by no means the first evidence of Watneys' interest in design. 1967 L. B. Archer in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. 128 The range of design activities which can be loosely termed ‘house style’ design. Ibid. 139 House style, the characteristic shapes and colours by which the products, paperwork, and property of a firm may be recognized. 1967 Listener 17 Aug. 220/2 It is the galleries which tend to have a ‘house style’..which mount the most coherent exhibitions. |
| 1825 J. Morison in Morisoniana (1831) 240 The *house-surgeon having neglected to retain the elastic. 1836–9 Dickens Sk. Boz. (1850) 146/2 A certificate was read from the house-surgeon of a neighbouring hospital. 1905, 1962 House surgeon [see house physician above]. 1934 House surgeon [see house officer above]. |
| 1674 Ray Collect. Words, Eng. Birds 86 The common *House-swallow; Hirundo domestica. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1776) I. 399 The house-swallow is distinguished..by the superior forkiness of its tail, and by the red spot on the forehead, and under the chin. |
| Mod. Advt., *House-tablemaid..wanted at once. |
| 1787 in O. Browning Despatches fr. Paris (1909) I. 207 It is said that the Timbre, the *House-Tax, and le commerce des Grains will be strongly oppos'd. 1825 Malthus Diary 17 June (1966) 232 Complaints of the weight of taxes—Capitation tax. House tax. 1833 J. S. Mill in Monthly Repos. VII. 580 A tradesman in Regent Street pays precisely as much house-tax (56l. 13s. 4d.) as the Duke of Devonshire pays for Chatsworth. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India I. 469 The house⁓tax excited the discontent of its inhabitants. 1868 Rogers Pol. Econ. xxii. (1876) 20 In the case of the poor, a house⁓tax has special disadvantages. |
| 1939 Brit. Birds XXXIII. 32 Descriptions of some well-known methods such as the..*house-trap, and bat-fowling have already been received. 1960 E. Ennion House on Shore iv. 37 House traps of one kind or another, aviaries to all appearances, are to be found in many enthusiastic ringers' gardens. |
| 1936 Discovery Apr. 99/2 A distinctive Irish *house-type. 1953 L. Kuper Living in Towns i. 7 A single house-type has been used in such a way as to create variety and interest, by the grouping of the units in different numbers and relationships. 1955 D. Chapman Home & Social Status vi. 84 The families living in different house-types have different social and economic characteristics. |
| 1891 Tablet 12 Sept. 437 To bring the Italian and German *house-urns into direct connection. |
| 1886 Pall Mall G. 12 Oct. 4/1 The highways are blocked for miles with ‘*house-waggons’. |
| Mod. Advt., Wanted, a *House-waitingmaid, with good references. |
| 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 1 Apr. 7/1 (Advt.), Extra values in reliable *house wares today and Saturday. 1969 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Spring Catal. 565/3 Housewares. 1970 Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 29/2 (Advt.), ‘Perma-Glo’ 9-pc. Teflon Cookware Set..Housewares. 1971 Sunday Express (Johannesburg) 28 Mar. (Home Jrnl.) 9/3 (Advt.), Housewares..Grapefruit knife..Bathroom Scales. |
| 1602 W. Fulbecke 2nd Pt. Parall. 52 The termor hath *house⁓wood..fire-woode belonging to his tearme of common right. |
| 1841 A. Bache Fire-Screen 119 Mrs. Gibbs, a woman who sometimes came to assist in doing *house-work, had followed Mrs. Brown into the parlour. 1871 Rep. Indian Affairs (U.S.) (1872) 378 While the boys are engaged in out-door work, the girls could be employed in sewing or house-work. 1928 D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 531 No woman does her housework with real joy unless she is in love. |
| 1896 A. Morrison Child of Jago xvii. 177 The old buildings were sold..to the *house-wreckers. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 7 Sept. 8/2 The hand of the housewrecker. 1936 House-wrecker [see demolition 3]. |
| 1808 A. Wilson Amer. Ornith. I. 133 The *House Wren inhabits the whole of the United States, in all of which it is migratory. 1848 [see wren 1 b]. 1872 Amer. Naturalist VI. 275 Here the common ‘house’ wren is bleached and faded. 1904 E. Glasgow Deliverance v. i. 442 A half-finished nest which a house-wren had begun to build. 1961 O. L. Austin Birds of World (1962) 248/2 Most familiar of these [cavity-nesting species] is the common House Wren, a widespread species of 30-odd races which ranges from southern Canada south to Cape Horn and the Falkland Islands. |
▸
house-dust mite n. any of several mites of the genera
Dermatophagoides and
Euroglyphus (family
Pyroglyphidae), which are common in household dust and bedding and whose excreta and body remains can cause asthma and other allergic reactions; also called
bed mite.
| 1967 Ann. Allergy 25 599 The author concludes that for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus a common name is proposed: ‘*House-Dust Mite’. 1994 Which? Feb. 35/2 House-dust mites are found in large numbers in poorly-ventilated bedding. |
▸
house mite n. (originally) any of various small mites found in domestic environments (in
quot. 1903, a bird louse found in a chicken house); (now)
spec. (a) an acarid mite,
Glycyphagus domesticus (family
Glyciphagidae), which feeds on moulds and is found chiefly in damp upholstery and mould-infested foodstuffs; also called
furniture mite,
storage mite;
(b) = house-dust mite n. at Additions
| 1903 N. S. Mayo Care of Animals xv. 317 Coal-tar applied hot to perches and walls, is very effective in keeping away *house-mites of chickens. 1970 N.Z. Med. Jrnl. 72 417 (heading) House mites and allergies: their control in the house. 1977 G. Vevers tr. H. Mourier & O. Winding Collins Guide Wild Life House & Home 100/1 Common house mites, Glycyphagus domesticus. These small mites..can be recognised by the long hairs at the rear end. 1999 Bath Chron. (Nexis) 16 Feb. 2 House mite droppings can aggravate eczema; vacuuming, washing bedding frequently at high temperature and damp dusting can help. |
▸
house pit n. Archaeol. an excavated pit constituting the floor and walls of a semi-subterranean dwelling;
cf. pit house
n. 2.
| 1899 Science Apr. 541/2 In the entire region examined, these abandoned *house-pits was [sic] found. 1997 Oxoniensia 61 4 The Late Neolithic ‘house pits’ claimed rather tentatively elsewhere in southern England may also be of natural origin. |
▪ II. house, n.2 (
haʊs)
Forms: (3
huce), 4
hous,
houce, 4–7
houze, 5
howse, 6
howss, 6–7
houss, 7
housse,
houche, 5–
house.
[a. OF. huche (12th c. in Littré), houce (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), mod.F. housse (med.L. hucia, houcia, hussia, housia). According to Darmesteter-Thomas,
perh. adopted during the Crusades from Arabic γ
ūshīah, ‘tegumentum, velum’. See other suggestions in Diez, Littré, etc.]
A covering of textile material;
esp. and usually, a covering attached to a saddle, so as to cover the back and flanks of the horse; a housing.
| c 1283 Graystanes in Script. Tres (Surtees) 64 Ex eo [panno] palefridis tuis coopertoria quæ huces nuncupantur fecit. 1312–13 Durham MS. Cell. Roll, j Houce empt. pro j equo. 1333–4 Durham MS. Burs. Roll, In panno..empt. pro houzes equorum, pro j houze ad palefr. missam domino Regi. 1391 Earl Derby's Exp. 7 Pro j hous pro le baner. Ibid. 247 Pro j house pro sella domini de coreo. 1483 Cath. Angl. 190/1 A Howse of a horse, sandalum, sudaria. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxi. 21 With ane new houss I wald be happit. 1601 F. Tate Househ. Ord. Edw. II §56 (1876) 40 He shal..carri the houche of those horses the kinge shalbe mounted on. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 86 A stately Horse, covered with a Housse all Embroidered with Gold. a 1700 Dryden tr. Ovid's Met. xii. (R.), The houss and trappings of a beast. 1756 Rolt Dict. Trade, Housing or House, a Cover laid over the Saddle of a horse, in order to save it from the weather and dirt. |
▪ III. house, n.3 orig. U.S. (
haʊs)
Also
House.
[Prob. f. the name of The Warehouse, a night-club in Chicago where this music was first popularized c 1985: see house n.1] a. A type of popular music,
orig. created by disc jockeys in dance-clubs, which typically features the use of drum machines, sequencers, sampled sound effects, and prominent synthesized bass lines, in combination with sparse, repetitive vocals and a fast beat.
Cf. *
Acid House n. Its marked popularity in the
U.K. during the late 1980s and early 1990s led to the swift proliferation of associated styles (see
quot. 1989
2).
| 1986 House Sound of Chicago (record sleeve note), House is the mystifying music they call the key... House is meta-music, always referring outwards to other sounds, past and present. 1987 New Musical Express 14 Feb. 51/1 Each week in the NME, the Dancefloor Charts, a wilful mixture of '60s R&B, 12{pp} go go, industrial funk, hip hop, house, commercial pop and selected indie thrash, act as the real measure of what we consume. 1988 New Statesman 17 June 14/1 The pirates hype..the neo-disco known as house. 1989 Chicago Tribune 11 Oct. v. 2/1 The city's black artists..created a street-smart dance music known as ‘house’ at warehouse parties on the South and West Sides, but had to ship their singles to New York and London to turn a profit. 1989 Melody Maker 14 Oct. 48/1 In the aftermath of the first waves of Acid and Balaeric, clubbers have been offered, in no chronological order, dance music under the names of..Acid jazz, ska House and hip House... There's been the Garage and Techno sounds of New York and Detroit respectively, Belgian New Beat,..and, most recently, Dutch and Italian House. It's enough to confuse even the most dedicated clubber. 1990 Egg Aug. 87/2 You can dance to deafening house in the adjoining 7th Street Entry's ‘House Nation under a Groove’ party. |
b. attrib. and
Comb.,
esp. as
house music.
| 1986 House Sound of Chicago (record sleeve note), Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley's ‘Jack Your Body’, the local term for frantic dancing that you can hear woven into countless House tracks. 1986 Q Oct. 82/2 Washington has Go-Go, The Bronx gave the world hip-hop and Chicago, that toddlin' town, steps forward with House Music. 1988 Smash Hits 19 Oct. 81/4 One's a cover version of a ‘house’ tune. 1989 Guardian 19 Oct. 26/1 It's huge..and last week it became official: The Gallup Top 40 showed that House or House-derived music is occupying the whole Top 5. 1991 Face Feb. 89/1 When house music came, the doors were thrown open, and we felt we could do whatever we wanted. |
▪ IV. house, v.1 (
haʊz)
[OE. h{uacu}sian (in sense 1) = OHG. hûsôn (MHG., MLG., MDu. husen, Ger. hausen, Du. huizen), ON. husa; f. h{uacu}s house n.1] I. Transitive senses.
1. a. To receive or put into a house; to provide with a house to dwell in; to keep or store in a house or building.
| c 1000 Leges Penit. c. 14 in Thorpe Laws II. 282 Fede þearfan and scryde and husiᵹe. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 18 Whan that they were alle housed And set and served ate mete. 1432 Sc. Acts Jas. I in Stat. Scotl. (1814) II. 21/1 The sheref..sal..forbide at ony man houss, herbery or resett hym. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 251/1 Howsyn, or puttyn yn a howse, domifero. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 118 b, That if the Mare be housed, there be roome enough for her and her foale. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxviii. xxi, A shepheard wise to howse his flock doth haste. 1626 Bacon Sylva §412 As wee House Hot-Countrey Plants..to saue them; So wee may House our owne Countrey Plants to forward them. 1768 G. White Selborne xiii. (1875) 50 A neighbour housed an oat-rick lately. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. v. ii. Wks. (Globe) 672/1 Where did you leave your fellow-travellers? Are they in safety? Are they housed? 1832 H. Martineau Weal & W. i. 3 There were nine children to be housed. 1885 Manch. Exam. 21 May 5/1 The arrangements for housing the art collection of the Museum Committee at Queen's Park. |
b. refl. To enter a house; to take refuge or shelter in a house.
| ? a 1400 Sir Beues 142 (MS. C.) Thereaboute ye shalle yow howse And sone after that shalt be hur spowse. 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) A iij b, House your selues in the next Tauerne. 1685 Travestin Siege Newheusel 49 The rest of the Turks housing themselves. 1848 J. Grant Aide-de-camp xxxiv, Each person housed himself where he could. |
† c. To drive or pursue into a house.
Obs.| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 188 Euen now we hous'd him in the Abbey heere. 1694 Penn Trav. Holland etc. 249 the Priest run away, they followed him till they housed him. 1701 Strype Aylmer (R.), Yet the said Bishop, as he understood, his single man housed them all. |
2. To receive, as a house does; to give shelter to.
| 1610 G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. ii. xiv, Him the silent wildernesse did house. a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. i. 10 When we have broken through the outward shell of words and phrases that house it [truth] up. 1773–83 Hoole Orl. Fur. xxiii. (R.), When the place No knight has hous'd. 1832 Tennyson Œnone 36 O Caves That house the cold-crowned snake! 1877 T. A. Trollope Peep behind Sc. at Rome xi. 140 The building was capable of comfortably housing a very much larger number. |
3. transf. and
fig. To place or enclose as in a house; to cover as with a roof; to harbour, lodge.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 65 b, Some use to house it with Strawe and Horse doung, and so leave it in the Garden. 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. iii. i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 49/1 Nay, good sir, house your head. 1643 Milton Divorce To Parlt. Eng., The piety, the learning and the prudence which is hous'd in this place. 1791–1823 D'Israeli Cur. Lit., Puck the Comm., Some collector..houses the forlorn fiction—and it enters into literary history. 1841 Emerson Meth. Nat. Wks. (Bohn) II. 226 The universal does not attract us until housed in an individual. |
4. a. Naut. To place in a secure or unexposed position:
e.g. a gun, by running it in on deck and fastening it by tackle, muzzle-lashing, and breeching; a topmast or topgallant-mast, by partly lowering it and fastening its heel to the mast below it.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Canon à la serre, a gun housed athwart, with the top of its muzzle bearing against the upper edge of the port. 1835 Marryat Pirate vii, In bad weather it [the gun] can be lowered down and housed. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xv. 41 A large ship, with her top-gallant-masts housed. 1874 Thearle Naval Archit. 77 Provision is made for housing the screw shaft by giving a swell to the post, as in a wood ship. |
b. Naut. To cover or protect with a roof.
| 1821 A. Fisher Voy. Arctic Reg. 151 As the ships are now housed and secured, and the days getting so short. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v. Housed, Ships in ordinary, not in commission, are housed over by a substantial roofing. |
c. Hop-growing. (See
quot.)
Cf. housling.
| 1875 Sussex Gloss., When hops have a great deal of bine, and the poles are thickly covered over the top, so as almost to shut out the light and sun, they are said to be ‘housed’. |
d. Carpentry. To fix in a socket, mortice, or the like:
cf. housing n.1 5.
| 1856 S. C. Brees Gloss. Terms s.v. Housing, The steps of a staircase are housed into the stringboard, and the ends of a pair of rafters are sometimes housed into the head of a king-post. 1884 F. T. Hodgson Stair-building 12 Wall strings are the supporters of the ends of the treads and risers that are against the wall. They may be ‘housed’ or left solid. |
† 5. To build. (
transl. L.
ædificare.)
Obs. rare.
| a 1400 Prymer (1891) 35 [Ps. cxxii. 3] Iherusalem that is housed as a cite, whas delynge is in him self. |
II. Intransitive senses.
† 6. To erect a house or houses; to build.
Obs.| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 492 Hii housede & bulde vaste & herede & sewe. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. xlix. (1869) 30 The carpentere with his ax to howse and to hewe. 1496 Dives & Paup. x. viii. (W. de W.) 383/1 Thou shalt house & other shall dwelle therin. |
7. To dwell or take shelter in (or as in) a house; to harbour. Also with
up.
| 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 828 He would it drive away, Ne suffer it to house there. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 190 Graze where you will, you shall not house with me. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 460 Observe the starry Signs, Where Saturn houses, and where Hermes joins. 1803 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. II. 342, I again housed with my peasants. 1828 Blackw. Mag. XXIV. 442 Surely the Devil houses here! 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West i. 40 We can house up, you know, and keep warm on the prairie in winter, but we can't house up and keep cool in the timber in the summer. 1880 Watson Prince's Quest (1892) 32 If..unbelief House in thy heart. |
† 8. house in (also in
pass.): said of a ship of which the upper works are built narrower than the lower. (
Cf. homing vbl. n. 1.)
Obs.| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xi. 52 Flaring..is when she is a little howsing in, neere the water. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. s.v. Housed, She is Housed-in, or Pinched-in too much. 1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 165 Tumbling home; when the Ship-side declines from a Perpendicular upwards, or, as some call it, houses in. |
▪ V. house, v.2 (
haʊz)
[f. house n.2: cf. F. housser (OF. houchier 13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).] trans. To cover (a horse) with a house or housing.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxi. 71 Tak in this gray horss, Auld Dunbar,..Gar howss him now aganis this ȝuill. 1580 Blundevil Horsemanship, Diet. Horses (1609) 11 Horses..would be housed in Summer season with canuas to defend the flies, and in Winter with a thicke woollen housing cloth, to keepe them warme. 1658 Evelyn Diary 22 Oct., A velvet bed of state drawn by six horses, houss'd w{supt}{suph} y⊇ same. 1844 Mrs. Browning Rom. Swan's Nest vi, And the steed it shall be shod All in silver, housed in azure. |
▪ VI. house v.3 var. of
hoise v.:
cf. howes.
| c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. (Percy Soc.) 14 Cocke wayed anker, and housed his sayle. |