English
habitation
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˌhæb.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/
Noun

habitation

  1. (uncountable) The act of inhabiting; state of inhabiting or dwelling, or of being inhabited; occupancy.
    • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part 1, Chapter 24,
      And there have been Common-wealths that having no more Territory, than hath served them for habitation, have neverthelesse, not onely maintained, but also encreased their Power, partly by the labour of trading from one place to another, and partly by selling the Manifactures, whereof the Materials were brought in from other places.
    • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 7,
      Witness this new-made world, another Heaven
      From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view
      On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
      Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
      Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
      Of destined habitation […]
    • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Volume 2, Chapter 10,
      The few miserable hovels that showed some marks of human habitation, were now of still rarer occurrence; and at length, as we began to ascend an uninterrupted swell of moorland, they totally disappeared.
    • 1907, G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday, Chapter 12,
      Now, however, the windows in the houses began one by one to be lit up, giving a greater sense of habitation and humanity.
  2. (countable) A place of abode; settled dwelling; residence; house.
    • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene 1,
      And as imagination bodies forth
      The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
      Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
      A local habitation and a name.
    • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Exodus 35:3,
      Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book I, Chapter 6,
      Mrs Deborah, having disposed of the child according to the will of her master, now prepared to visit those habitations which were supposed to conceal its mother.
    • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Book 5, The Pastor, p. 219
      How gay the Habitations that adorn
      This fertile Valley! Not a House but seems
      To give assurance of content within;
    • 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, New York: Scribner, 1987, Chapter 10,
      And this is Shanty Town, my friend. ¶ Even here the children laugh in the narrow lanes that run between these tragic habitations.
  3. A group, lodge, or company, as of the Primrose League.
  4. (Louisiana French) A farm.
Synonyms Translations Translations

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