ˈale-house
[ale- 4.]
A house where ale is retailed; hence, a tippling house.
| a 1000 Laws of Ethelb. Thorpe I. 292 On eala-huse. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 11 Untimeliche eten alehuse. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 5978 At þe alehous make þey marchaundye. c 1450 Knt. de la Tour 44 His parisshenes gone forthe to the ale hous or to a taverne. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iii. ii. 12 Would I were in an Ale-house in London. 1670 Eachard Contempt Clergy 122 If upon Sunday the church doors be shut, the ale-houses will be open. 1787 Bentham Def. Usury xiii. 159 The stuff fit to make a prodigal of is to be found in every alehouse. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 295 The redcoats filled all the alehouses of Westminster. |
b. attrib. (Cf. also ale-knight.)
| 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 2 b, Scurrilitie or alehouse jestyng would bee thought odious. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. li. 305 These Tauernhaunters or Alehouseknightes which counterfeit the preachers. 1601 Dent Pathw. to Heaven 248 You are..a drinker, a common ale-house-haunter. 1765 Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 528 Exercising the trade of a butcher, or an ale-house keeper. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. iv. ii, And Jack on his ale-house bench has as many lies as a Czar. |