parrot-housen.
/ˈparəthaʊs/, U.S. /ˈpɛrətˌ(h)aʊs/ A building, esp. in a zoo, for housing parrots. Also figurative: a room, building, etc., filled with loud or raucous chatter.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > zoo > [noun] > parrot-house
parrot-house1850
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > unpleasant quality > harsh or discordant quality > [noun] > sound
ganglinga1387
noise?a1425
jarring1555
jangling1581
discord1589
caterwauling1594
latration1623
tingle-tanglea1635
jar1669
crank1786
jangle1795
discordancy1796
inharmony1799
discordance1801
parrot-house1850
soundclash1925
ear-bender1940
1850 Fraser's Mag. June 654/2 The siren had lived for many years in the parrot-house, domiciled in a vessel of pond water, with a bottom of deep mud.
1872 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch I. ii. xv. 251 Our chat would be thin and eager, as if delivered from a camp-stool in a parrot-house.
1881 Times 2 May 6/1 The thorough repair and reconstruction of the parrot-house.
1923 H. C. Bailey Mr. Fortune's Pract. vii. 186 It is an old-fashioned orphanage..as noisy as the parrot house.
1945 E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited ii. i. 216 The parrot-house fever of my wife's party.
1977 ‘M. Underwood’ Murder with Malice xxiii. 209 The courtroom became a parrot-house of chatter as people pushed towards the exits.
2002 Western Mail (Cardiff) (Nexis) 4 Apr. 4 Thieves stole the blue and gold macaw after forcing a door to the Parrot House at Chester Zoo.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1850