English
house
see also: House
Pronunciation Noun

house

  1. A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings. [from 9th c.]
    This is my house and my family's ancestral home.
    • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter III, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604 ↗; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620 ↗:
      The big houses, and there are a good many of them, lie for the most part in what may be called by courtesy the valleys. You catch a glimpse of them sometimes at a little distance from the [railway] line, which seems to have shown some ingenuity in avoiding them, […].
  2. The people who live in a house; a household. [from 9th c.]
    • Bible, Acts of the Apostles 10:2
      one that feared God with all his house
  3. A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word). [from 10th c.]
    The former carriage house had been made over into a guest house.
    On arriving at the zoo, we immediately headed for the monkey house.
    1. A place of business; a company or organisation, especially a printing press, a publishing company, or a couturier. [from 10th c.]
      A small publishing house would have a contract with an independent fulfillment house.
    2. A place of public accommodation or entertainment, especially a public house, an inn, a restaurant, a theatre, or a casino; or the management thereof.[from 10th c.]
      One more, sir, then I'll have to stop serving you – rules of the house, I'm afraid.
      The house always wins.
    3. (historical) A workhouse.
      • 1834, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Reports from the Commissioners (volume 29, page 169)
        To this the pauper replied that he did not want that, and that rather than be sent to the house he would look out for work.
  4. The audience for a live theatrical or similar performance. [from 10th c.]
  5. A theatre.
    After her swan-song, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
  6. (politics) A building where a deliberative assembly meets; whence the assembly itself, particularly a component of a legislature. [from 10th c.]
    The petition was so ridiculous that the house rejected it after minimal debate.
  7. A dynasty; a family with its ancestors and descendants, especially a royal or noble one. [from 10th c.]
    A curse lay upon the House of Atreus.
  8. (metaphorical) A place of rest or repose. [from 9th c.]
    • 1598, Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour
      Like a pestilence, it doth infect / The houses of the brain.
    • 1815, Walter Scott, The Lord of the Isles
      Such hate was his, when his last breath / Renounced the peaceful house of death  […].
  9. A grouping of schoolchildren for the purposes of competition in sports and other activities. [from 19th c.]
    I was a member of Spenser house when I was at school.
  10. An animal's shelter or den, or the shell of an animal such as a snail, used for protection. [from 10th c.]
  11. (astrology) One of the twelve divisions of an astrological chart. [from 14th c.]
    • 1971, Keith Thomas (historian), Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p.313:
      Since there was a limited number of planets, houses and signs of the zodiac, the astrologers tended to reduce human potentialities to a set of fixed types and to postulate only a limited number of possible variations.
  12. (cartomancy) The fourth Lenormand card.
  13. (chess, now, rare) A square on a chessboard, regarded as the proper place of a piece. [from 16th c.]
  14. (curling) The four concentric circles where points are scored on the ice. [from 19th c.]
  15. Lotto; bingo. [from 20th c.]
  16. (uncountable) A children's game in which the players pretend to be members of a household.
    As the babysitter, Emma always acted as the mother whenever the kids demanded to play house.
  17. (US, dialect) A small stand of trees in a swamp.
  18. (sudoku) A set of cells in a Sudoku ↗ puzzle which must contain each digit exactly once, such as a row, column, or 3×3 box in classic Sudoku.
Synonyms
  • (establishment) shop
  • (company or organisation) shop
Pronunciation Verb

house (houses, present participle housing; past and past participle housed)

  1. (transitive) To keep within a structure or container.
    The car is housed in the garage.
    • House your choicest carnations, or rather set them under a penthouse.
  2. (transitive) To admit to residence; to harbor/harbour.
    • Palladius wished him to house all the Helots.
  3. To take shelter or lodging; to abide; to lodge.
    • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene v]:
      You shall not house with me.
  4. (transitive, astrology) To dwell within one of the twelve astrological houses.
    • Where Saturn houses.
  5. (transitive) To contain or cover mechanical parts.
  6. (obsolete) To drive to a shelter.
  7. (obsolete) To deposit and cover, as in the grave.
  8. (nautical) To stow in a safe place; to take down and make safe.
    to house the upper spars
  9. (North America, slang, transitive) To eat.
    • , Shameless (series 10, episode 4, "A Little Gallagher Goes a Long Way")
      All you wanna do is drink a fifth, house a lasagna, and hide in a dumpster until that baby stops crying.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Noun

house (uncountable)

  1. (music genre) House music.
House
Proper noun
  1. (US, as "the House") The House of Representatives.
  2. More generally, a shortened name for any chamber of a legislature that is named "House of...", especially where the other chamber(s) are not so named (as in Australia or Canada), or where there is no other chamber (as in New Zealand).
  3. Surname for someone residing in a house (as opposed to a hut) or in a religious house.
  4. (UK, as "the House") The college of Christ Church, Oxford.
  5. A village in New Mexico.
  6. An unincorporated community in North Carolina.
Translations
  • Spanish: Cámara de Representantes


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