ˈsummer-ˌhouse
[Cf. WFris. simmerhûs, MDu. somerhuys (Du. zomerhuis), MHG. sum(m)erhaus (G. sommerhaus).]
1. A summer residence in the country. Now rare.
| 1{ddd} Cust. of Newington by Sittingbourne in Cowel's Interpr. (1701), Homines quoque de walda debent unam domum æstivalem quæ Anglice dicitur Sumer-hus invenire, aut viginti solidos dare. 1382 Wyclif Amos iii. 15 Y shal smyte the wyntyr hous with the somer hous [Vulg. domo æstiva]. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 164, I had rather liue With Cheese and Garlick in a Windmill farre, Than feede on Cates, and haue him talke to me, In any Summer-House in Christendome. 1654 Gataker Disc. Apol. 50 The Doctor making onelie a Summer-House of it. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xii. 453/1 Summer Houses, Bowers, Places to which the Gentry resort, and abide there dureing the Summer season, for their Recreation and pastime. a 1709 J. Lister Autobiog. (1842) 35 At present her summer-house is in Highgate. 1797 W. Johnston tr. Beckmann's Invent. II. 38 [Privies] are at present considered to be so indispensably necessary, that few summer-houses are constructed without them. 1881 Daily News 26 Sept. 5/2 Its very nearness to London perhaps has made it less of an actual residence and more of a holiday summer-house than it would otherwise have been. |
| fig. 1754 Fielding Voy. Lisbon Wks. 1882 VII. 82 The wind..slyly slipped back again to his summer-house in the south-west. |
2. A building in a garden or park, usually of very simple and often rustic character, designed to provide a cool shady place in the heat of summer.
| c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. i. 347 Lest the sonne in somer do hit harm, Thi somer hous northest & west let wrie. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. 34 b, Frenche Beanes..climeth aloft,..seruyng well for the shadowyng of Herbers and Summer houses. 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 389/2 Horti adonidis,..a banketting summer house made of trees, herbs, flowers, &c. 1624 Wotton Archit. ii. 100 [Paintings of] Land-schips, and Boscage..in open Tarraces, or in Summer houses. 1721 Mortimer Husb. II. 206 Summer-Houses may..be erected at each Corner [of the garden], and made so as to let in the Air on all sides, or to exclude it. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 275 At the end of the terras-walk are two summer-houses. 1824 Scott St. Ronan's xxxvii, One of her gloves lay on the small rustic table in the summer-house. 1888 M. E. Braddon Fatal Three i. vi, There was an old stone summer-house in each angle of that end wall. |
† b. An arbour or the like used in connexion with the ‘summer-game’.
Obs.| 1519 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 103 In quo..horreo..loco adtunc vulgariter dicto Somer-house, prædicta Margareta More,..permansit..jocundam se faciendo in eodem. |