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house definition

Overview

This page has 53 definitions of house with English translations in 13 languages. House is a noun and verb. Examples of how to use house in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: House

English house definition

Etymology 1

From Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (dwelling, shelter, house), from Proto-West Germanic *hūs, from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (compare Scots hoose, West Frisian hûs, Dutch huis, German Haus, German Low German Huus, Danish hus, Faroese hús, Icelandic hús, Norwegian Bokmål hus, Norwegian Nynorsk hus and Swedish hus), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kews-, from *(s)kewH- (to cover, hide). Eclipsed non-native Middle English meson, measoun (house), borrowed from Old French maison (house). More at hose.

The uncommon plural form housen is from Middle English husen, housen. (The Old English nominative plural was simply hūs.)

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

The house of a Japanese rice farmer
A city-house. In this photo, its garden doesn't appear

house (countable and uncountable, plural houses or (dialectal) housen or (chiefly humorous) hice)

  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, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:
      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, [].
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      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.
    1. (Hong Kong, only used in names) An apartment building within a public housing estate.
  2. A container; a thing which houses another.
    • 1892, Ella Eaton Kellogg, “Foods”, in Science in the Kitchen: A Scientific Treatise on Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes[1], Revised edition, Michigan: Health Publishing Company, page 25:
      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.
  3. (uncountable) Size and quality of residential accommodations.
    • 2007 November 6, “When Will the Slump End?”, in Newsweek:
      Those homeowners who bought too much house, or borrowed against inflated values are now going to be liable for their own poor decisions.
  4. A building intended to contain a single household, as opposed to an apartment or condominium or building containing these.
  5. The people who live in a house; a household. [from 9th c.]
  6. 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.
  7. The audience for a live theatrical or similar performance. [from 10th c.]
    • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Affair at the Novelty Theatre[2]:
      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.
  8. A theatre.
    After her swan-song, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
    • 1964, Northwest Ohio Quarterly, volume 36, page 185:
      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.
  9. (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.
  10. 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.
  11. (figurative) A place of rest or repose. [from 9th c.]
  12. 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.
  13. An animal's shelter or den, or the shell of an animal such as a snail, used for protection. [from 10th c.]
  14. (astrology) One of the twelve divisions of an astrological chart. [from 14th c.]
    • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 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.
  15. (cartomancy) The fourth Lenormand card.
  16. (chess, now rare) A square on a chessboard, regarded as the proper place of a piece. [from 16th c.]
  17. (curling) The four concentric circles where points are scored on the ice. [from 19th c.]
  18. Lotto; bingo. [from 20th c.]
  19. (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.
  20. (US, dialect) A small stand of trees in a swamp.
  21. (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
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
Further reading

Etymology 2

From Middle English housen, from Old English hūsian, from Proto-Germanic *hūsōną (to house, live, dwell), from the noun (see above). Compare Dutch huizen (to live, dwell, reside), German Low German husen (to live, dwell, reside), German hausen (to live, dwell, reside), Norwegian Nynorsk husa (to house), Faroese húsa (to house), Icelandic húsa (to shelter, house).

Pronunciation

Verb

house (third-person singular simple present houses, present participle housing, simple past and past participle housed)

  1. (transitive) To keep within a structure or container.
    The car is housed in the garage.
    • 1669, John Evelyn, “Kalendarium Hortense: Or The Gard’ners Almanac; [] [November.].”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. [], 3rd edition, London: [] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, →OCLC, page 29:
      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.
    • 1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The North Eastern's new rail-mounted piling unit”, in Trains Illustrated, page 646:
      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.
  2. (transitive) To admit to residence; to harbor.
  3. To take shelter or lodging; to abide; to lodge.
  4. (transitive, astrology) To dwell within one of the twelve astrological houses.
  5. (transitive) To contain or cover mechanical parts.
  6. (transitive) To contain one part of an object for the purpose of locating the whole.
    The joists were housed into the side walls, rather than being hung from them.
  7. (obsolete) To drive to a shelter.
  8. (obsolete) To deposit and cover, as in the grave.
    • 1636, G[eorge] S[andys], “(please specify the page)”, in A Paraphrase upon the Psalmes of David. And upon the Hymnes Dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments, London: [Andrew Hebb []], →OCLC:
      Oh! can your counsel his despair defer , Who now is housed in his sepulchre
  9. (nautical) To stow in a safe place; to take down and make safe.
    to house the upper spars
  10. (Canada, US, slang, transitive) To eat; especially, to scarf down.
    • 2019, Joe Lawson, 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
Derived terms
  • housable, unhousable
Translations

Etymology 3

Probably from The Warehouse, a nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where the music became popular around 1985.

Pronunciation

Noun

house (uncountable)

  1. (music) House music.
    • 1998, Colin Larkin, The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music, London: Virgin Books, →ISBN, page 73:
      [] their music is influenced as much by Roxy Music and the Ramones as it is by house and techno pioneers.
    • 2001 March, Philip Sherburne, “Exos, Strength [album review]”, in CMJ New Music Monthly, number 91, Great Neck, N.Y.: College Media, →ISSN, page 66:
      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.
    • 2006, Mark Jonathan Butler, Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 45:
      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.
Descendants
Translations

Chinese house definition

Etymology

From English house.

Pronunciation


Noun

house

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) mansion; large house (Classifier: c)

Czech house definition

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Noun

house n

  1. gosling
Declension

Etymology 2

Noun

house m inan

  1. house music, house (a genre of music)
Declension

Further reading

  • house in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
  • house in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
  • house in Internetová jazyková příručka

Dutch house definition

Etymology

From English house. Doublet of huis and osso.

Pronunciation

Noun

house m (uncountable)

  1. house music, house (a genre of music)

Finnish house definition

Etymology

From English house.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈhɑu̯s/, [ˈhɑ̝u̯s̠]
  • Syllabification(key): hou‧se

Noun

house (uncountable)

  1. (music) house music, house (a genre of music)

Declension

Inflection of house (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)
nominative house
genitive housen
partitive housea
illative houseen
singular plural
nominative house
accusative nom. house
gen. housen
genitive housen
partitive housea
inessive housessa
elative housesta
illative houseen
adessive housella
ablative houselta
allative houselle
essive housena
translative houseksi
abessive housetta
instructive
comitative See the possessive forms below.
Possessive forms of house (type nalle)
first-person singular possessor
singular plural
nominative houseni
accusative nom. houseni
gen. houseni
genitive houseni
partitive houseani
inessive housessani
elative housestani
illative houseeni
adessive housellani
ablative houseltani
allative houselleni
essive housenani
translative housekseni
abessive housettani
instructive
comitative
second-person singular possessor
singular plural
nominative housesi
accusative nom. housesi
gen. housesi
genitive housesi
partitive houseasi
inessive housessasi
elative housestasi
illative houseesi
adessive housellasi
ablative houseltasi
allative housellesi
essive housenasi
translative houseksesi
abessive housettasi
instructive
comitative
first-person plural possessor
singular plural
nominative housemme
accusative nom. housemme
gen. housemme
genitive housemme
partitive houseamme
inessive housessamme
elative housestamme
illative houseemme
adessive housellamme
ablative houseltamme
allative housellemme
essive housenamme
translative houseksemme
abessive housettamme
instructive
comitative
second-person plural possessor
singular plural
nominative housenne
accusative nom. housenne
gen. housenne
genitive housenne
partitive houseanne
inessive housessanne
elative housestanne
illative houseenne
adessive housellanne
ablative houseltanne
allative housellenne
essive housenanne
translative houseksenne
abessive housettanne
instructive
comitative
third-person possessor
singular plural
nominative housensa
accusative nom. housensa
gen. housensa
genitive housensa
partitive houseaan
houseansa
inessive housessaan
housessansa
elative housestaan
housestansa
illative houseensa
adessive housellaan
housellansa
ablative houseltaan
houseltansa
allative houselleen
housellensa
essive housenaan
housenansa
translative housekseen
houseksensa
abessive housettaan
housettansa
instructive
comitative

Further reading

French house definition

Pronunciation

Noun

house f (uncountable)

  1. house music, house (a genre of music)
    Synonym: house music

Anagrams

Hungarian house definition

Etymology

From English house.

Pronunciation

Noun

house (plural house-ok)

  1. (music) house music, house (a type of electronic dance music with an uptempo beat and recurring kickdrum)

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative house house-ok
accusative house-t house-okat
dative house-nak house-oknak
instrumental house-zal house-okkal
causal-final house-ért house-okért
translative house-zá house-okká
terminative house-ig house-okig
essive-formal house-ként house-okként
essive-modal
inessive house-ban house-okban
superessive house-on house-okon
adessive house-nál house-oknál
illative house-ba house-okba
sublative house-ra house-okra
allative house-hoz house-okhoz
elative house-ból house-okból
delative house-ról house-okról
ablative house-tól house-októl
non-attributive
possessive - singular
house-é house-oké
non-attributive
possessive - plural
house-éi house-okéi
Possessive forms of house
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. house-om house-aim
2nd person sing. house-od house-aid
3rd person sing. house-a house-ai
1st person plural house-unk house-aink
2nd person plural house-otok house-aitok
3rd person plural house-uk house-aik

Derived terms

  • house-parti
  • house-zene

References

  1. ^ Laczkó, Krisztina; Attila Mártonfi (2006) Helyesírás [Orthography], Budapest: Osiris Kiadó, →ISBN

Middle English house definition

Etymology 1

Noun

house

  1. Alternative form of hous

Etymology 2

Verb

house

  1. Alternative form of housen

Norwegian Bokmål house definition

Etymology

From English house, house music. Doublet of hus.

Noun

house m (indeclinable) (uncountable)

  1. house music, house (a genre of music)

Synonyms

  • housemusikk

References

Norwegian Nynorsk house definition

Etymology

From English house. Doublet of hus.

Noun

house m

  1. house music, house (a genre of music)

Polish house definition

Etymology

Pseudo-anglicism, derived from house music.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /xaws/
  • Rhymes: -aws
  • Syllabification: house

Noun

house m inan

  1. house music, house (genre of music)

Declension

Derived terms

adjectives
  • house'owy
  • housowy

Further reading

  • house in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • house in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese house definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English house (music).

Noun

house m (uncountable)

  1. house music, house (a genre of music)
    Synonym: música house

Romanian house definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English house.

Noun

house m (uncountable)

  1. house music

Declension

Spanish house definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English house music.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈxaus/ [ˈxau̯s]
  • Rhymes: -aus

Noun

house m (uncountable)

  1. house music, house (a genre of music)
    Synonym: música house

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

Swedish house definition

Etymology

From English house music.

Noun

house c

  1. house music, house (a genre of music)

Declension

Declension of house 
Uncountable
Indefinite Definite
Nominative house housen
Genitive houses housens

Synonyms

  • housemusik, house-musik