glass-house
1. The building or works where glass is made.
| 1385 [see glazier 1]. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong., Vne voarriére, a glasse house where glasses be made. a 1598 G. Longe in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. III. 158 Other men erected..divers Glasshouses in sundry parts of the Realm. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. Proem. 8 We caus'd several such Glasses, to be blown at the Glass-house. 1711 Vind. Sacheverell 98 Thou art as hot as a Glass-house. 1726 Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 158 We could perceive the Volcano burning like the Flame of a Glass-house. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Savage Wks. III. 325 [Savage]..lay down..in the winter..among the ashes of a glass-house. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 577 The glass-houses are usually built in the form of a cone..The furnace is constructed in the centre of the area. |
2. a. A building with walls and roof made chiefly of glass,
esp. a greenhouse or conservatory.
| 1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 72/1 Glasshouses, in which plants might be grown in an artificial climate. 1880 Disraeli Endym. xxxiv, ‘Is not this lovely? How superior to anything in our glass-houses.’ 1885 Law Times LXXIX. 345/2 This exhibition..will be held..in the spacious glasshouse erected in the gardens for the purpose. |
| Proverb. [a 1633: see glass n.1 1 1670: see glass-window.] 1869 Hazlitt Proverbs 400 They who live in glass houses should not throw stones. |
b. A photographer's room with a glass roof.
| 1864 J. Towler Silver Sunbeam iii. 27 In many instances the artist has the privilege of superintending the construction of his glass house. Ibid. v. 43 The camera, which is situated in the darkest part of the glass-house. |
c. A military prison or guard-room (see
quot. 1925). Also
attrib. slang.| 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 105 Glass house, detention barracks. An old Army expression, originally particularly applied to the detention barracks for the Aldershot Command at Woking. Later used of any place of military detention. Guard-room, Cells, etc. 1945 Penguin New Writing XXVI. 49 But surely they didn't give you the glasshouse for going to Dunkirk? Ibid., The glasshouse man continued to recount his experiences in detention. 1946 News Chron. 2 Mar. 4/4 Glasshouse rioters' final stand... Some of the men at Northallerton barracks..holding out on the roof. 1947 J. Bertram Shadow of War 202 Someone with a lengthy ‘crime sheet’—perhaps..a notorious frequenter of the glasshouse. |
3. attrib. and
Comb. (sense 1), as
glass-house fire,
glass-house furnace,
glass-house man;
glass-house pot = glass-pot (in
glass n.1 16).
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 72 ¶7 The Fire burns from Generation to Generation, and has seen the *Glass-house Fires in and out above an Hundred times. |
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 121 Place it in a *glass-house furnace to digest and purify. |
| 1764 Low Life 68 Stone-Sawyers, *Glass-House-Men and Men belonging to the Publick Lay-Stalls. |
| 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 490 The *glass-house pots are formed of the purest kinds of clay that can be procured. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 577 Glass-house pots have the figure of a truncated cone, with the narrow end undermost. |