See Also: Golden House Restaurant and Pancake House(tourism)
House Advantage / House Edge - Blackjack(gambling)
in-house(dictionary)
house(2)(dictionary)
House(medicine)
row house(dictionary)
In house(finance)
house(4)(dictionary)
In-house(money)
art house(dictionary)

house(1) (iou)



house noun1 & adjective.
[Old English hus = Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old High German (Dutch huis, German Haus), Old Norse hus, Gothic -hus (only in gudhus temple), from Germanic: ult. origin unkn.]
A. noun. Pl. houses .
A building for human habitation, a dwelling, a home; spec. a self-contained unit having a ground floor and one or more upper storeys (as opp. to a bungalow, flat, etc.). OE.
apartment house, council house, country house, doll's house, farmhouse, manor-house, mansion-house, town house, Wendy house, etc.
J. Steinbeck The rich people who lived in the stone and plaster houses of the town.
b. A part of a building occupied by one tenant or family. Scot. & dial. OE.
c. The living-room of a house. dial. L17.
(As 2nd elem. of comb. or with other specification.) A building accommodating or frequented by people that is other than an ordinary private dwelling; a building or place where a specified occupation, activity, etc., is pursued, or where refreshment of a specified kind is provided. OE.
alehouse, almshouse, bakehouse, bath-house, bawdy-house, boarding-house, coffee-house, clubhouse, court-house, custom-house, doss-house, dwelling-house, eating-house, guardhouse, guest-house, lodging-house, madhouse, meeting-house, opera-house, playhouse, slaughterhouse, summer-house, wash-house, whore-house, workhouse, etc.
b. spec. A building occupied by a religious community; a monastery, a convent; the religious community itself. ME.
c. A university college. Now rare exc. in the House, Christ Church, Oxford, Peterhouse, St Peter's College, Cambridge. M16.
d. A building in which a legislative or deliberative assembly meets; the assembly itself; the British House of Commons. M16.
House of Commons, House of Delegates, House of Keys, House of Lords, House of Representatives, Lower House, Upper House, etc.
e. A place of business; a business establishment, a firm; spec. a printing or publishing firm, a couture or fashion establishment. Also, the Stock Exchange. L16.
f. A building where public refreshment is provided; an inn, a tavern, a public house. Also as interjection, demanding service at a bar, dining-table, etc. M17.
J. P. Donleavy Can't serve you, sir, rules of the house, you've had enough to drink.
g. A theatre, a cinema; a performance or showing (usu. specified, as first, second, etc.) in a theatre or cinema; the audience in a theatre or cinema or at a (specified) performance or showing. M17.
J. Agate The play..is being played to packed houses.
h. A brothel. E19.
i. A boarding-house of a public school; a division of a school for organizational purposes, as for competitive games; the pupils in such a boarding-house or division. M19.
j. An establishment for gambling, a casino; the management of such an establishment (against which bets are placed). E20.
A place of worship (considered as the home of a god); a temple, a church. OE.
The natural habitation of an animal, a den, a burrow, a nest; esp. the shell of a snail, tortoise, etc. OE.
J. Alday Snayles..beare with them their houses easely on their backes.
gen. A place of abode or rest. OE.
W. Cowper A heavenly mind May be indifferent to her house of clay. Sir W. Scott The peaceful house of death.
collect. The inhabitants of a house; a household, a family. OE.
Oxford English Dictionary The whole house was down with influenza.
The line of descent of a family; a dynasty, a lineage, esp. one of high rank or fame. OE.
House of Hanover, House of Stuart, etc.
J. Ruskin To read the shields, and remember the stories, of the great houses of England.
(Chiefly as 2nd elem. of comb.) A building for the keeping of animals or plants or for the storage or protection of something; a building for the production of something specified. ME.
coach-house, coal-house, doghouse, glasshouse, greenhouse, henhouse, hothouse, ice house, lighthouse, outhouse, powerhouse, storehouse, warehouse, wheel-house, etc.
Astrology.
a. Each of the twelve divisions of the ecliptic fixed with respect to the horizon. Also mundane house. LME.
b. Any of the signs of the zodiac considered as the seat of the greatest influence of a particular planet. Cf. MANSION 5. LME.
a. Each square of a chessboard. M16-E19.
b. Curling. The space within the outermost circle drawn round either tee. L19.
Bingo, lotto, tombola, esp. as played for money; (the call announcing or the prize for) the winning of the game. E20.
A form of popular dance music characterized by the use of synthesized sounds and a fast beat. L20.
Phrases: (as) safe as houses perfectly safe. big house: see BIG adjective. bow down in the house of Rimmon, worship in the house of Rimmon [after 2 Kings 5:18] pay lip-service to a principle; sacrifice one's principles for the sake of conformity. bring down the house: see BRING verb. clean house US do housework; fig. wipe out corruption, inefficiency, etc. daughter of the house a daughter of the family. dead house: see DEAD adjective etc. disorderly house: see DISORDERLY adjective. eat out of house and home: see EAT verb. free house: see FREE adjective. full house: see FULL adjective. go all round the houses, go round the houses fig. beat about the bush; arrive at the point in a roundabout way. great house: see GREAT adjective. HALFWAY house. house and home emphatic home. house of call arch. a place where carriers call for commissions, where a person may be heard of, etc.; a house one visits regularly. house of cards a structure built of playing-cards balanced together; fig. an insubstantial or precarious structure, an insecure or overambitious scheme. house of correction: see CORRECTION 3. house of God a church, a temple. house of ill fame, house of ill repute arch. a brothel. house of office arch. a privy, a lavatory. house of prayer a church, a temple. house of RELIGION. house of the ascendant: see ASCENDANT noun 1. House of Windsor: see WINDSOR noun 2. Houses of Parliament: see PARLIAMENT noun. keep a House secure the presence of enough members for a quorum in the House of Commons. keep house maintain, provide for, or manage a household. keep the house, keep one's house, keep to the house, keep to one's house not go outdoors, esp. because of illness. like a house on fire vigorously, fast; successfully, excellently. make a House = keep a House above. man of the house: see MAN noun. move house: see MOVE verb. on the house (esp. of a drink) at the publican's or management's expense, free. open house general hospitality (keep open house, provide this). play house play at being a family in its home. PUBLIC HOUSE. put one's house in order, set one's house in order make necessary reforms; settle one's arrangements. safe as houses: see as safe as houses above. set one's house in order: see put one's house in order above. set up house begin to live in a separate dwelling. son of the house a son of the family. the House (a) see senses 2c, d, e above; (b) euphem. (Hist.) the workhouse. the House of Windsor the present British Royal Family. the lady of the house: see LADY noun. the Lord's house a church, a temple. throw the house out of the window: see WINDOW noun. White House: see WHITE adjective. white house: see WHITE adjective. worship in the house of Rimmon: see bow down in the house of Rimmon above.
b. attrib. or as adjective (freq. with hyphen).
gen. Of or pertaining to a house or a household; used or kept in or about a house; domestic. OE.
J. Austen The loud noise of the house-bell. J. Carlyle My house-money is utterly done. B. Kimenye His house servant was away on leave, and the drawbacks of bachelorhood were making themselves acutely felt. R. Ludlum His clumsy, long-haired house cat had knocked over a stray glass.
Of or pertaining to a house at a school. M19.
Of or pertaining to a commercial house or business establishment; (of a magazine etc.) published by a particular firm or society and dealing mainly with its activities; (of a wine etc.) selected and recommended by a restaurant etc. as a reasonable buy; (of a band, group, etc.) resident or regularly performing (in a club etc.). E20.
T. Hilton The Germ was the first house journal of a self-consciously avant-garde artistic group. O. Lancaster The house burgundy at five bob a bottle.
Comb. & special collocations: house-agent an agent for the sale and letting of houses, an estate agent; house arrest detention in one's own house etc., not in prison; house-arrest verb trans. put under house arrest; houseboat a boat fitted up for living in, usu. on inland waters; housebote [BOOT noun1] Law (a tenant's right to) timber from the landlord's estate for house repairs; housebound adjective unable to leave one's house through illness etc.; houseboy a boy or man as a servant in a house, esp. in Africa; house-burn verb intrans. (of tobacco) become damaged or spoilt by disease during the curing process; house call a visit made to a patient in his or her own home by a doctor etc.; housecarl [CARL noun] Hist. (before the Norman Conquest) a member of the bodyguard of a Danish or English king or noble; house church (a) a charismatic Church independent of traditional denominations; (b) a group meeting in private houses as part of the activities of a Church; house-clean verb trans. & intrans. clean (the interior of a house); housecoat a woman's informal coat-dress, esp. for wearing in the home; house colours a badge, cap, etc. awarded for representing a house of a school, esp. in a sporting event; housecraft (skill in) household management; house detective a private detective employed on the premises by a hotel, business, etc.; house-dog a dog kept as a pet or to guard a house; house-father the father of a household or family; a man in charge of a house, esp. of a home for children; house-flag a flag indicating to what firm a ship belongs; housefly the common fly of houses and farms, Musca domestica, a dipteran insect which lays its eggs in excrement and decaying organic matter, and spreads disease; house-girl a female domestic servant, formerly esp. a slave; house guest: staying in a private house; house-heating (a) the heating of a house; (b) (chiefly Scot.) a house-warming party etc.; house-hunting looking for a house to live in; house-husband a husband who carries out the household duties traditionally carried out by a wife; house-lamb (now rare) a lamb kept in or near a house as a pet or for fattening for the table; the meat from such a lamb; houseleek a plant of the stonecrop family, Sempervivum tectorum, with pink flowers and dense rosettes of fleshy leaves, formerly much planted on roofs as a protection against lightning; house lights: in the auditorium of a theatre; house longhorn a wood-boring beetle, Hylotrupes bajulus, of the family Cerambycidae; house-lot N. Amer. a building-plot; house-manager the manager of a theatre, cinema, club, etc.; house martin an Old World swallow, Delichon urbica, which builds mud nests on house walls, rocky cliffs, etc.; housemaster a master of a house; spec. a male teacher in charge of a house in a school; housemastership the position or office of a housemaster; housemate a person who shares a house with another or others; housemistress a mistress of a house; spec. a female teacher in charge of a house in a school; house-mother the mother of a household or family; a woman in charge of a house, esp. of a home for children; house mouse a usually grey mouse, Mus musculus, which lives close to human habitation in most parts of the world and eats almost anything; house music = sense A.12 above; house officer a (usu. resident) doctor of one of the more junior grades in a hospital; house-parent a house-mother or house-father; esp. of a home for children; house party (a gathering of) guests staying at a house; house physician a resident physician in a hospital, usu. of the most junior grade; house-place dial. a combined living-room and kitchen in a farmhouse etc.; house-plant a plant that is suitable for growing indoors; house-proud adjective attentive to, or unduly occupied with, the care and appearance of the home; house-raising US (chiefly Hist.) a gathering of people to help a neighbour construct a house; house-rent party US (a) a party held to raise money to pay the rent of a house; (b) a jam session in a house or apartment; houseroom accommodation or space in a house (not give houseroom to, not tolerate having or keeping); house row Hist. a row or street of houses; house-sitter a person who temporarily lives in a house by arrangement during an absence by the usual occupant(s); house snake (a) any of several N. American colubrid snakes of the genera Elaphe and Lampropeltis; (b) a southern African colubrid snake of the genus Boaedon; (c) a snake kept as a household god; house sparrow the common sparrow, Passer domesticus, a small noisy gregarious bird native to Eurasia but now found close to human habitation in most areas other than the Far East; house style a particular printer's or publisher's etc. preferred way of presenting text, including rules for spelling, punctuation, etc.; the distinctive style, esp. in artistic presentation, of a firm etc.; house surgeon a resident surgeon in a hospital, usually of the most junior grade; house-to-house adjective visiting or performed in turn at each of a series of houses; housetop the top or roof of a house; cry from the housetops, proclaim from the housetops, etc. [with allus. to Luke 12:3], announce publicly, announce loudly; housewares (chiefly N. Amer.) utilitarian household items, esp. kitchen utensils; house-warming (a) the warming of a house; (b) a party or other entertainment celebrating a move to a new home (also house-warming party etc.); housework cleaning, cooking, and other domestic work undertaken in a house; housewright arch. a house-builder.