noun
house (countable and uncountable, plural houses or (dialectal) housen or (chiefly humorous) hice)
A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings. [from 9th c.]
A container; a thing which houses another.
(uncountable) Size and quality of residential accommodations; housing.
A building intended to contain a single household, as opposed to an apartment or condominium or building containing these.
The people who live in a house; a household. [from 9th c.]
A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word). [from 10th c.]
The audience for a live theatrical or similar performance. [from 10th c.]
(politics) A building where a deliberative assembly meets; whence the assembly itself, particularly a component of a legislature. [from 10th c.]
A dynasty; a family with its ancestors and descendants, especially a royal or noble one. [from 10th c.]
(figurative) A place of rest or repose. [from 9th c.]
A grouping of schoolchildren for the purposes of competition in sports and other activities. [from 19th c.]
An animal's shelter or den, or the shell of an animal such as a snail, used for protection. [from 10th c.]
(astrology) One of the twelve divisions of an astrological chart. [from 14th c.]
(cartomancy) The fourth Lenormand card.
(chess, now rare) A square on a chessboard, regarded as the proper place of a piece. [from 16th c.]
(curling) The four concentric circles where points are scored on the ice. [from 19th c.]
Lotto; bingo. [from 20th c.]
(uncountable) A children's game in which the players pretend to be members of a household.
(US, dialect) A small stand of trees in a swamp.
(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.
Examples
This is my house and my family's ancestral home.
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, […].
Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned, […] and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live.
Those homeowners who bought too much house, or borrowed against inflated values are now going to be liable for their own poor decisions.
Coordinate terms: apartment, condo, condominium, flat
one that feared God with all his house
The former carriage house had been made over into a guest house.
On arriving at the zoo, we immediately headed for the monkey house.
A small publishing house would have a contract with an independent fulfillment house.
I have a good banker in this city, but I would not wish to draw upon the house until the time when I shall draw for a round sum.
One more, sir, then I'll have to stop serving you – rules of the house, I'm afraid.
The house always wins.
The farce comedy which followed, When We're Married by Charles Burnham, was heartily praised, with the character man singled out for special extollation. The production filled the house.
Frazier and Gary worked for me for free — for six months — they didn't take any money from the house. They worked for tips.
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.
After her swan-song, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
The petition was so ridiculous that the house rejected it after minimal debate.
A curse lay upon the House of Atreus.
Like a pestilence, it doth infect / The houses of the brain.
Such hate was his, when his last breath / Renounced the peaceful house of death […].
I was a member of Spenser house when I was at school.
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.
As the babysitter, Emma always acted as the mother whenever the kids demanded to play house.
Related words
synonyms
(establishment): shop
(company or organisation): shop
hypernyms
building
dwelling, residence
hyponyms
alehouse
auction house
backhouse
basket house
birdhouse
boathouse
boghouse
bog-house
chapter house
coffee house
common house
cophouse
country house
doghouse
doll's house
doss-house
dosshouse
dreamhouse
dream house
flophouse
flop-house
frame house
full house
glasshouse
God's house
Government House
Greek house
greenhouse
grow house
guest-house
guesthouse
guest house
halfway house
haunted house
house of assembly
House of Commons
house of correction
house of detention
house of God
house of ill fame
house of ill repute
House of Lords
house of office
house of worship
Houses of Parliament
jakeshouse
lighthouse
little house
long house
long-house
longhouse
lower house
meeting-house
meetinghouse
meeting house
move house
outhouse
play-house
playhouse
play house
poorhouse
prisonhouse
privy house
public house
publishing house
pumphouse
pump house
royal house
safehouse
schoolhouse
school house
scouthouse
shithouse
shophouse
siegehouse
storehouse
tea house
tiny house
town house
toy house
tribal house
upper house
warehouse
wartime house
weather house
Wendy house
White House
whorehouse
verb
house (third-person singular simple present houses, present participle housing, simple past and past participle housed)
(transitive) To keep within a structure or container.
(transitive) To admit to residence; to harbor.
To take shelter or lodging; to abide; to lodge.
(transitive, astrology) To dwell within one of the twelve astrological houses.
(transitive) To contain or cover mechanical parts.
(transitive) To contain one part of an object for the purpose of locating the whole.
(obsolete) To drive to a shelter.
(obsolete) To deposit and cover, as in the grave.
(nautical) To stow in a safe place; to take down and make safe.
(Canada, US, slang, transitive) To eat; especially, to scarf down.
Examples
The car is housed in the garage.
Houſe your choiceſt Carnations, or rather ſet them under a Pent-houſe againſt a South-wall, ſo as a covering being thrown over them to preſerve them in extremity of weather, they may yet enjoy the freer air at all other times.
Now, covered concrete troughs to house the cables are laid parallel with the railway lines, cheapening maintenance because of improved accessibility for inspection and repair.
Palladius wished him [...] to house all the Helots.
You shall not house with me.
The federation yesterday vowed to occupy Uotsuri, one of the islands, and build a permanent structure to house six members.
Where Saturn houses.
The joists were housed into the side walls, rather than being hung from them.
Euen now we hous'd him in the Abbey heere
Oh! can your counsel his despair defer , Who now is housed in his sepulchre
to house the upper spars
All you wanna do is drink a fifth, house a lasagna, and hide in a dumpster until that baby stops crying.
Related words
synonyms
(keep within a structure or container): store
(admit to residence): accommodate, harbor/harbour, host, put up
(contain or enclose mechanical parts): enclose
Etimology
Probably from The Warehouse, a nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where the music became popular around 1985.
noun
house (uncountable)
(music) House music.
Examples
[…] their music is influenced as much by Roxy Music and the Ramones as it is by house and techno pioneers.
And while hard, minimal techno has become increasingly influenced by house and Oval-esque "glitch" stylistics, Exos keeps it old school on Strength, infusing his own style with the force of hard techno purists Surgeon and Oliver Ho.
The first genre of American dance music to become popular in the United Kingdom was Chicago house. Although music from Detroit was soon imported as well, it was often treated as subcategory of house, and for many years the most common English term for electronic dance music in general was "house" or "acid house". […] During the formative years of techno and house, the musicians involved interacted in various ways.