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单词 house
释义

Definition of house in English:

house

noun haʊshaʊs

  • 1A building for human habitation, especially one that consists of a ground floor and one or more upper storeys.

    a house of Cotswold stone
    as modifier house prices
    Example sentencesExamples
    • I believe that he might later have gone to lodge at a house in Upper Church Street, Bath, with two of his sisters.
    • Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of the mysteries of life at every stage of it.
    • There could not have been more than 50 huts in all and a dozen or so single storey brick and mortar houses, overlooking the fields beyond.
    • One of the proposals, submitted by Joe Costello, proposes to construct 25 semi detached two storey houses.
    • This phrase originated in medieval times in Europe when most double storey houses did not have indoor toilets.
    • The residential portion of the building is located to the rear or on the upper floor of the house.
    • The ground floor of the house has ramps so that disabled visitors get a chance to see the main rooms.
    • On the other side of the road are normal, two storey houses.
    • The plaintiffs were required to carry out certain repairs by the local council in order to render houses fit for human habitation.
    • A loft extension in particular creates an instant extra storey to the house.
    • Most of the houses are two storeys (some three) and would be equivalent to a medium to large sized Queensland home.
    • Prices of houses have soared; building costs are going through the roof.
    • Inside, the house is on three storeys, with the ground floor including a drawing room, study and dining room.
    • Real foxes do, indeed, sometimes make their homes under human houses and, increasingly in this country at any rate, under city homes.
    • One of the new houses is three storeys high and the other is four, prompting fears that homes nearby will lose their privacy by being overlooked.
    • The application was for eight, two storey houses and eight bungalows organised in four clusters.
    • Land beside Blue Bridge Lane, currently a redundant building, would have 24 three storey houses built on it.
    • As you walk down towards it, the sky opens up, for in this rare Manhattan block almost all the buildings are period houses of just five storeys.
    • Following the fire, investigators found traces of an accelerant in the badly damaged ground floor of the house.
    • Condemning our houses as unfit for human habitation is a surefire way of clearing this area and making the area which they required for the Academy available.
    Synonyms
    home, place of residence, homestead, lodging place, a roof over one's head
    formal habitation, residence, dwelling, dwelling place, abode, domicile
    1. 1.1 The people living in a house; a household.
      make yourself scarce before you wake the whole house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Every creak of a floor board or an opening door seems loud enough to wake up the whole house.
      • I would have called you, but I didn't want to wake your entire house at seven on a weekend.
      • Boethius was brought up in the house of the aristocratic family of Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus.
      • It only takes one forgetful person to leave theirs in the bathroom and the whole house would be using it.
      • He picked up his cell phone to call her but thought that he would be waking up the whole house.
      Synonyms
      household, family, family circle, ménage, clan, tribe
      informal brood
    2. 1.2 A noble, royal, or wealthy family or lineage; a dynasty.
      the power and prestige of the House of Stewart
      Example sentencesExamples
      • The English and Scottish royal houses had become closely connected through marriage.
      • Problems have beset the house of Versace since its founder was murdered seven years ago.
      • There's been a rash circulating around the royal houses of Europe… a rash of engagements and weddings that is.
      • She cut down the servants at the tables, and massacred all in the house of Akhat.
      • They were sought after by Europe's royal houses long before many of today's classics were known.
      • It is somewhat ironic that the last great monument of the house of Wessex was mainly a product of Norman culture.
      • Mar decided to retaliate by raising the standard for the house of Stuart.
      • These Four royal houses shall be responsible for one of the greatest legends ever told in my homeland of Spain.
      • Starkey goes on to point out it would be hard for the house of Windsor to pull off the same trick.
      • They had already incurred the enmity of the royal houses of Europe, why add that of the bankers?
      • A bigger wedding event will be probably take place then, but the date is yet to be set between the two royal houses.
      • The Picts also practiced matrilineal descent - thus their royal houses all descended through the female line.
      • It is also possible to view Williams as a tragic figure, cursed like the house of Atreus or Kennedy.
      • The Blood Royal of this actual Grail lineage persists, via the female line, in the royal houses of Europe to this day.
      • In all honesty, however, I think this is the essence of our attempts to understand and make sense of the complexities of the British and European royal houses.
      • This little known renaissance play deals with tragedy which befalls two houses once a lady's honour has been compromised.
      • The coats of arms of most of the royal houses of Europe incorporate symbols of the 12 Tribes of Lesbos.
      • Mountbatten was born to a family closely related to the house of Windsor.
      Synonyms
      clan, kindred, family, tribe, race, strain
      dynasty, line, lineage, ancestry, ancestors, bloodline, descent, family tree
    3. 1.3Scottish A dwelling that is one of several in a building.
    4. 1.4with modifier A building in which animals live or in which things are kept.
      a hen house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • The Reptile House gives visitors an insight into the reptile and amphibian world in its many shapes and sizes.
      • The majority of the Zoo's birds live in the beautiful, sanctuary-like Bird House but birds are also scattered throughout other exhibits.

  • 2A building in which people meet for a particular activity.

    a house of prayer
    Example sentencesExamples
    • What problems are reported in the newspaper or talked about in the houses of worship as community challenges?
    • He also noted that it did not take into account the mosques and Muslim houses of prayer destroyed since 1948.
    • What is not in dispute is that the nation has turned in much greater numbers to houses of worship and organized religion.
    • It is not right to make a fortress of Christ's church, which is a house of prayer.
    • Does the Holy Spirit and fire ever need to come down in our houses of worship?
    • As we gather in our houses of worship, let us begin a process of seeking the healing and grace of God.
    • Six weeks ago many of us did not even notice whether or where the U.S. flag stood in our houses of worship.
    • Scalia cited a 1970 Supreme Court case involving tax exemptions for houses of worship in New York.
    • Jesus, berating the money-changers in the Temple, called the building a house of prayer.
    1. 2.1 A firm or institution.
      a publishing house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • In some cases, the wines produced by these houses are lesser in quality today than, let's say, ten years ago.
      • They range from the traditional activities of the acceptance houses in international trade to all types of capital issues and financial services business.
      • I know where to go when I absolutely need new news, but the old print cycle is still ruling publishing in many news houses.
      • The police and civil administration generally has been ordered to ensure that all shops and business houses remain closed during prayer time.
      • Banking firms and financial houses announced thousands of job losses in recent weeks.
      • The film board is a Canadian government film production house.
      • There, rather like the men from Del Monte, the port houses would select the wine from the local farmers.
      • The items included kites, toiletries, chocolates, biscuits, washing soaps, breakfast cereals and beans which she sourced from various business houses in the capital city.
      • The central government plans to privatise publishing houses in a bid to open the sector and lure investment.
      • There seemed to be only a half dozen corporate publishing houses left.
      • This beneficial film-forming yeast grows naturally on the surface of the wine, although some houses now choose to cultivate their own flor culture.
      • In larger transactions, a syndicate of venture capital houses or private equity firms might combine to provide the equity finance.
      • Most film companies converted to production houses to service the high demand for local content to fill broadcast hours.
      • He also appealed to business houses to help the institution with the sinking of a borehole since the school has no water supply.
      • Purchase recommendations from all of the major financial houses bejewel the company's stock like diamonds.
      Synonyms
      firm, business, company, corporation, enterprise, establishment, institution, concern, organization, operation
      informal outfit, set-up
    2. 2.2British informal The Stock Exchange.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • 'From the Alley to the House is like a path of ants', said Walpole.
    3. 2.3 A restaurant or inn.
      help yourself to a drink, compliments of the house!
      as modifier a carafe of house wine
      Example sentencesExamples
      • The British education in high-street curry houses will help them find their way around menus, but after that, preconceptions should be discarded.
      • Food arrives at our table - not food we have asked for, but a small appetiser with the compliments of the house.
      • With all the gigs, curry houses and general yah-yah activity in Brick Lane now, you'd expect Shoreditch station to be thronging with people.
      • I'd cook rabbit stuffed with black pudding, which is one of our house specialties in the Lindsey House.
      • Get a couple of glasses of house champagne, relax and enjoy the sunset from way up in the sky.
      • They think it reflects well on them that the wine they choose to be their house wine is a posh one.
      • We'll dine at the fanciest and snootiest drive-thru restaurants and waffle houses.
      • You can sip a cup of tea at the tea house and restaurant inside the garden.
      • He was also part of a small group of young mathematicians who met weekly in a wine house.
      • There are a few trusty pizza houses and French restaurants for those who can't face cooking after a day of strenuous exercise.
      • I spent the next two hours pouring mineral water, serving glasses of house wine and decanting bottles at the bar.
      • If that is true, then what a truly pitiful bunch of lazy, coffee house analysts we are.
      • In most reception venues, the house alcohol is always more expensive than if you supply your own.
      Synonyms
      inn, bar, tavern, hostelry, taproom
      restaurant, hotel, eating house
      British pub, public house
      informal eatery, boozer
      historical alehouse, taphouse, beerhouse
      North American historical saloon
    4. 2.4dated A brothel.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • In an attempt to create Canada’s first cooperative bawdy house, a sex-work organization will submit a request to Parliament for amnesty from an anti-brothel provision within the next six months.
      Synonyms
      brothel, house of ill repute, house of prostitution
    5. 2.5 A theatre.
      a hundred musicians performed in front of a full house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • That attendance at theatre houses has dropped can only point to the fact that the quality of productions has not been impressive as has been the investment.
      • We just played off each other so well and had the best time doing it and the funniest part was, we wound up having packed houses, other people loved it too.
      • The production bemused and beguiled a packed house in which I seemed to be the only person over 22.
      • It could have come to Edinburgh with any one of a number of Irish plays from its normal repertoire, performed to packed houses and won critical acclaim.
      • These days, the film plays to packed houses when cinemas screen it at Christmas time, and is in constant demand from video-buyers.
      • This summer teenagers involved in the project performed to packed houses at Bradford's Alhambra Theatre on two consecutive nights.
      • He has become one of Hull's best known local music stars, and regularly performs to packed houses at the Adelphi Club in west Hull.
      • The Beatles, Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly were among stars performing to packed houses.
      • We need a few theatre houses with a congenial atmosphere in tune with the local architecture of the land.
      • The community responds and you screen in 800 seat theatres to packed houses.
      • In a small house with a tall actor, the rake and actor's frame easily manage to blot out a lot of the action.
      • THERE ARE at least three of Dileep's films now running to packed houses in the city theatres.
      • There's a certain energy in sold-out houses, and an anarchic feeling so late on a weeknight, for an unadvertised event.
      • The Jermyn Street Theatre is yet another much needed space for the revival of those gems of the musical theatre that are too small for anything like the major West End houses.
      • Most of the picture houses and theatres carried a lot of publicity from their managers' point of view.
      • Since then it has played to packed houses, and after London the production is off to the USA and France.
      • The production enjoyed packed houses at The Gilded Balloon, in Edinburgh 2003, with much critical acclaim.
      • Cinema houses like Nandan screen good films from across the world.
      Synonyms
      audience, crowd, those present, listeners, spectators, viewers, gathering, assembly, assemblage, congregation
      gallery, stalls
      informal punters
    6. 2.6British A performance in a theatre or cinema.
      tickets for the first house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • It was a productive time for both film-makers and playwrights, with houses full and involvement high.
      • Later it performed to packed houses at Andrew's Lane Theatre in Dublin
      • It played six performances to packed houses at Sydney's Conservatorium, and attracted gratifying media attention.
      • Since Gyan's return to the North Coast she has been performing to sellout houses.
      • Other than music, there should be a renewed interest in theatre especially with theatre houses having undergone a renaissance this year.
      • To date the tour has attracted capacity houses wherever it performs.
      Synonyms
      show, production, showing, presentation, entertainment, staging, act

  • 3A religious community that occupies a particular building.

    the Cistercian house at Clairvaux
    Example sentencesExamples
    • Monks from the various orders in Europe had flocked to England to set up religious houses.
    • Hereward and his family seem to have been the traditional protectors of the religious houses in the area.
    • Most Welsh religious houses had in any case always been poorly endowed.
    • In Britain too, there can be no doubt that the major religious houses were the focus of much landed wealth, munificence, and pilgrimage.
    • By the time of her death in 1581, Teresa had founded more than a dozen monastic houses.
    • After the dissolution of the religious houses, where the poor used to be relieved, there was for long no settled provision for them.
    • During the last years of Leo XIII's pontificate, religious houses tried to win over the poor for Catholicism.
    • Joseph II reduced the number of religious houses belonging to the contemplative orders.
    • Throughout the Middle Ages, Suffolk was dominated by the two liberties and the many other religious houses.
    • Recruitment to the parish clergy fell and monastic houses never recovered.
    • There they settled in Bethlehem and established his and hers monastic houses.
    • In England, for example, there were some fifty religious houses in 1066 and perhaps 1,000 monks and nuns.
    • It could have been commissioned by a religious house, dedicated to the Virgin, for use as the reredos of a high altar.
    • During the Middle Ages, the scriptoria and workshops of European religious houses took a strictly instrumental approach.
    • Giberti, like Sadoleto, chose to reside in his see, where he disciplined his clergy, reformed religious houses, and took the cure of souls seriously.
    • His first important job was as a visitor of religious houses under Henry, an appointment through which he greatly expanded his father's estate.
    1. 3.1 A residential building for pupils at a boarding school.
      a house of 45 boarders
      as modifier a house prefect
      Example sentencesExamples
      • In the final chapter, Kiely tells us about his adventures as a master of one of Harvard's residential houses.
      • No parts of the university were closed to the public (of course, the residential fraternity houses were another matter).
      • Rotherly is a Girls’ Boarding House for the Westgate School in Winchester.
      • The boarding houses are Grange Court, Sandon Lodge, and Hainault House.
    2. 3.2British Each of a number of groups into which pupils at a day school are divided for games or competition.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • All houses competed aggressively, and even the last race made a difference in the rankings.
      • There were eight houses or forms that divided up the pupils at Bishop Luffa and Sherbourne had now become the odd one out, the unlucky one.
      • The winners are now putting final plans together for six colour-coded houses in time for competition in the school sports day next month.
      • The six houses competed with each other for the first position.
      • From the very start, competition between the houses is encouraged.
      • Each activity involved two competing homerooms from different houses and at the end of the day a champion house was announced.
      • Students are divided into houses based on their special needs or interests.
      • There are four houses and they compete at sport, but there's no lacrosse and Lily said there was much less competition than in the Potter books.
    3. 3.3British formal A college of a university.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • He studied at the Castle, one of four teaching houses of the university which offered two year Arts degrees based almost entirely on the teachings of Aristotle.
      • College House is New Zealand’s oldest and most traditional University College, and is home to 152 students at the University of Canterbury.

  • 4A legislative or deliberative assembly.

    the sixty-member National Council, the country's upper house
    Example sentencesExamples
    • It would be the first time since 1981 that a government has controlled both houses of Australia's parliament.
    • At the state level, some of the legislatures are bicameral, patterned after the two houses of the national parliament.
    • Ireland has two houses of Parliament, the Upper House known as the Seanad and the Lower House known as the Dáil.
    • Few commentators have noted the provision for women's seats in both houses of parliament.
    • On Wednesday, opposition parties disrupted proceedings of both houses of parliament, demanding the minister quit.
    • This introduced a national parliament with two houses for India.
    • Democratic leaders in both houses say they'll bring it up for a vote and they expect it to pass.
    • I would recommend a tour of the houses of parliament to anyone.
    • Amendments must be approved by two-thirds of both houses of parliament and a majority of voters in a national referendum.
    • A provision for leases to be approved by both houses of parliament would safeguard against a sale by stealth, he said.
    • The king, however, will appoint one of the houses of the bicameral legislature, allowing him to control lawmaking.
    • That, according to Parliamentary legal adviser Eshaam Palmer, can be done only by both houses of Parliament sitting together.
    • The referendum has been widely adopted to protect key aspects of state constitutions, such as the governor and the two houses of parliament.
    • Unless both houses of parliament expressly disapprove within 12 months, the marriage may proceed.
    • The legislature has two houses, the house of senators and the house of deputies.
    • Under the constitution, the Czech president is elected by a majority in both houses of parliament.
    • An independent candidate also has to obtain an additional 20 backers from the two parliamentary houses or local councils.
    • The bill had been passed by both the houses of parliament before being signed by acting president Mian Mohammad Soomro.
    • What I don't understand is why they don't just have elections for two houses of parliament.
    • The government won not only re-election, but control of both houses of parliament.
    Synonyms
    legislative assembly, legislative body, chamber, council, parliament, diet, congress, senate
    1. 4.1 (in the UK) the House of Commons or Lords; (in the US) the House of Representatives.
      the government commanded an overall majority in the House
      Example sentencesExamples
      • We accept that a time will come when the houses of parliament and the government will have to agree a final form of the bill that is less than ideal.
      • And in the 1994 elections they went on to win a House majority.
      • Ideally, the president of the GMC would present the annual report in public, before a committee of both houses of parliament.
      • I came in 1976, when I had gotten an advance copy of a report of a House committee investigating CIA misdeeds.
      • ‘It is a fig leaf of a token element of elected peers designed to mask the design of the Prime Minister and his cronies to keep their grip on this House,’ he said.
      • She couldn't produce her promised list of 272 supporters in a House of 543.
      • Thus, with a cosy majority of 196 in a House of 234, her position remains unassailable.
      • They also altered the rules to make it harder to initiate an ethics investigation of a House member.
      • I turn immediately to the decision of this House in Hedley Byrne & Co Ltd v Heller & Partners Ltd.
      • Brown's ethics problems have included a House investigation of her connection with a jailed African businessman.
      • As they walked through the halls of a House office building, interns noticed the office of Mary Kaptur (D-Ohio).
      • He called for a House investigation into his actions and was cleared the following year of any wrongdoing.
      • The oldest member of parliament, he served as speaker of the house when it first met.
      • It's a tragic reminder of the reality which all of us in this House, and in the Lords, have to deal with in considering these matters.
      • When I spoke in the House on this subject on 8 December, I quoted similar stories from the police forces of Cambridgeshire, Essex, and Greater Manchester.
      • This was confirmed by a House Select Committee on Assassinations report in 1979 and recently by a US Department of Justice investigation.
      • Oldfield spoke in the House two other times.
      • However, a House subcommittee has scheduled hearings later this month to investigate the FCC's record of enforcing decency standards.
    2. 4.2 Used in formal debates that mimic the procedures of a legislative assembly.
      a debate on the motion ‘This house would legalize cannabis’
      Example sentencesExamples
      • This House Would Under No Circumstances Fight For Queen And Country.
      • This house would privatise Britain's universities.
      Synonyms
      audience, crowd, those present, listeners, spectators, viewers, gathering, assembly, assemblage, congregation

  • 5mass noun A style of electronic dance music typically having sparse, repetitive vocals and a fast beat.

    DJs specializing in techno, garage, and house
    Example sentencesExamples
    • He moved to the USA to teach in the Eighties, but hip hop and house passed him by, as he immersed himself in world music.
    • I mainly listen to minimal techno house, mostly because that's what I play out.
    • Next door, was a cafe run by a former ska musician with a love for house and techno.
    • Dance music, and especially house music, has an uncanny power to turn the most earnest honor student into a frenetic dance machine.
    • We were influenced by electro, hip-hop, house music, jazz-funk, reggae, everything really.

  • 6Astrology
    A twelfth division of the celestial sphere, based on the positions of the ascendant and midheaven at a given time and place, and determined by any of a number of methods.

    Example sentencesExamples
    • Also your boyfriend is represented by Saturn in the seventh house, which for you is the house of a husband or boyfriend.
    • When a planet is placed in an angular house, it is performing more powerfully.
    • His seventh house contains Mars while Libra is at the Ascendant containing Uranus.
    • It is also good to have the ruler of the Ascendant and the 2nd house in mutual reception.
    • A horoscope needs to be drawn and studied and the meaning of aspects as well as the positioning of houses and planets have to be understood.
    1. 6.1 A twelfth division of the celestial sphere represented as a sector on an astrological chart, used in allocating elements of character and circumstance to different spheres of human life.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Many planets of one person's chart fall into the angular houses of the other's natal chart.
      • I look further along and I see the Moon is at the top of the chart in the ninth house at 14 degrees of Virgo.
      • The angular houses represent our own ‘seats of power’, places of familiarity and control.
      • Every astrology chart is divided into houses, starting with the Ascendant line and working anti-clockwise around the rest of the chart.
      • It is conjunct Jupiter and opposite Mars at 15 degrees of Pisces in the third house.

  • 7British

    old-fashioned term for bingo
    1. 7.1as exclamation Used by a bingo player to announce that they have won.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • I made the cardinal bingo greenhorn's mistake of calling house when I hadn't filled my card.
      • In every game of bingo the tickets will be only 5p or 10p so you could be shouting house for just 5p.
adjective

  • 1attributive (of an animal or plant) kept in, frequenting, or infesting buildings.

    Example sentencesExamples
    • The cougar reportedly snatched a house cat and ran off into the bush with it.
    • I couldn't keep my room clean and barely knew how to take care of two house cats.
    • Shampoos are not residual as they are rinsed off, and it is not much fun washing the average house cat.
    • He has no more weight to him then a house cat, but a small scar runs across the right part of his lips.
    • It was a paddock for the grazing of house cows and the Governor's horses.
    • The study also showed that rather than living in hutches, four out of 10 pet rabbits were house rabbits.
    • They had to make their own bread and their own butter with cream from the house cow.
    • We tried to see if we could find a house cat for the family, that would not go out, but we couldn't guarantee it wouldn't escape.
    • However, most dog lovers do not intend to leash their house pets indefinitely.
    • He's just a house pet and is given quite a lot of freedom to move abut the place.
    • Lounging around the family home, the Dane's good house manners make it a good house pet.
    • They sneak up on their prey just like a house cat sneaks up on a bird or toy one slow step at a time.
    • Members of the family say the eel is an agreeable house pet, that eats twice a day and is fond of strips of raw chicken or fish.
    • She was almost like a house cat as she rubbed up against our legs and purred loudly.
    • Its beautiful appearance and devotion to its owners make it a well-loved house pet.
    • From the tops of these rats the size of house cats watched them with unblinking eyes.
    • She met no one along the way and only had one brief scare when she ran into a house cat, yet she made it to the library quietly unnoticed.
    • Clare has been interested in house rabbits for a year and has found a growing network of enthusiasts.
    • It was so small, about the size of a house cat, and Evy figured it to be just a foal.
    • Anise kneels down beside me, touching my hair in her right hand and stroking it like a house cat.

  • 2attributive Relating to a firm, institution, or society.

    a house journal
    Example sentencesExamples
    • It was house policy to serve all-comers but equally to bar anyone who was abusive or aggressive.
    • Business Week, which wants to be the house journal for Web 2.0 badgers, has no doubts.
    • A set of house rules may be accepted as valid by a group of players wherever they play.
    • This section looks firstly at factors concerned with the fund manager's organisational structure and secondly at matters relating to the implementation of the house policy.
    • The main purpose of an external house journal is to promote the organization, its products, and its services.
    1. 2.1 (of a band or group) resident or regularly performing in a club or other venue.
      the house band
      Example sentencesExamples
      • He takes his place near the back of the house band, playing the spoons in perfect tempo.
      • The fare was a mixture of jazz and blues standards, but the house band did not play it safe.
      • Jim Bridges and Cory Papirny are the house band rhythm section this time around.
      • As always, the house band will be in residence with all the usual suspects!
      • Accompanying this was a sound and light show that would match any of the big pop concerts as well as a fantastic house band.
verb haʊzhaʊz
[with object]

  • 1Provide with shelter or accommodation.

    they converted a disused cinema to house twelve employees
    Example sentencesExamples
    • If an asylum-seeker turned up with his family I am sure they would be housed in far better accommodation than these poor people have to live in.
    • They now provide funds for the voluntary groups to help in the retaining and re-education of homeless people who will be housed in permanent accommodation.
    • It enables vulnerable people to be housed in suitable accommodation so that they can try and turn their lives around.
    • Elderly residents from sheltered accommodation blocks are being temporarily housed in a day care centre.
    • Possible ideas include creating halfway houses, or transitional care areas, where patients could be housed until appropriate accommodation is arranged.
    • The women and children cited by Coleman in the column appear to be housed in shelters.
    • As a country, we have long forgotten that the model we use for housing the poor in state-built houses is that of the first mining township, Kimberley, well over a century ago.
    • An estimated 300,000 people were left homeless in Mumbai, India when authorities bulldozed acres of slums that were housing the city's poor.
    • They prodded authorities to raze the hundreds of alley shantytowns housing the city's poor and destitute.
    • The obstacles in the U.S. to housing the poor adequately are profound.
    • More than 500 students and nurses will be housed in a huge new accommodation block situated in the heart of the city centre.
    • About 30 people have been treated for minor injuries and a hundred are being housed in emergency accommodations.
    • They will consider whether the family should be rehoused or housed in accommodation provided by the local authority.
    • A few large blocks had arcaded courtyards like Italian Renaissance palaces; for these blocks housed both rich and poor.
    • Some 500 homeless victims of the quake were being housed in relief tents and others were sheltering from the freezing cold winds in buses.
    • The literally tens of thousands of dollars spent on pets in this country could be much better spent on feeding the hungry and housing the poor.
    • On the one hand, the state has, through its Reconstruction and Development Programme, prioritised housing the poor.
    • Fears drug users and ex-offenders could be housed in an old people's sheltered complex in Leigh have been dismissed by council chiefs.
    • Bates is initially expected to be housed in Probation Service accommodation in Yorkshire when he is released.
    • That intent has changed from housing for workers, to housing for war vets, to housing the poor.
    Synonyms
    accommodate, provide accommodation for, provide with accommodation, give accommodation to, make space for, make room for, give someone a roof over their head, provide a roof over someone's head, provide with a place to work, harbour
    lodge, quarter, board, billet, take in, provide shelter for, shelter
    sleep, put up, give a bed to, provide with a place to sleep

  • 2Provide space for; contain or accommodate.

    the museum houses a collection of Roman sculpture
    Example sentencesExamples
    • In the meantime the Fire Station will be temporarily housed in alternative accommodation until the new premises are ready.
    • It has since been renamed Balnahowan and now houses the Central Fisheries Board.
    • Indeed, this fascinating piece might be better housed in a gallery space.
    • The market houses about six organic merchants including Robert.
    • The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is housed in one such building, at 97 Orchard Street.
    • The Van Gogh museum houses the largest collection of this troubled man's masterpieces, and is definitely worth a look.
    • The network could not operate without the electrical equipment which was housed in the shelter and that is included in the determination.
    • The Mountbatten building houses labs and offices for the Optoelectronics research centre and the School of Electronics and Computer Science.
    • The new grant will be used to refurbish the east wing which will house the main residential accommodation.
    • The Amida hall, blending the secular with the religious, houses one or more Buddha images within a structure resembling the mansions of the nobility.
    • The experience of being inside the David and Peggy Rockefeller Building, which houses the museum's new galleries, is uplifting.
    • That building now houses all its activities most of which, as the respondents agree, are charitable in nature.
    • The Fifth Avenue building houses galleries, administrative offices and the museum's school.
    • Members of staff will be housed in the current accommodation until completion of the new development.
    • The Golden Plaza Tower, which also houses shops and a school, is crowned by the revolving restaurant.
    • Previously they have been separated from us and housed in poor accommodation with a lack of IT facilities.
    • During the construction work, nursery school children and staff will be housed in temporary accommodation opposite the existing building.
    • A storeroom on the ground floor houses 12 cylinders, each with a capacity of 35 kg.
    • The top half of the structure houses Lum's wholesale restaurant supply business.
    • A good diversity of coral life on the reef houses equally diverse marine animals.
    Synonyms
    contain, hold, store, cover
    protect, enclose, encase, sheathe, keep safe
    1. 2.1 Fix (something) in a socket or mortise.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • The joinery not only meets the requirements of modern engineering, it is the classic housed mortise and tenon joinery that has withstood the test of time.
      • A socket for receiving the wedge base electric lamp houses socket terminals serving to retain the electric lamp and to provide contact with lead wires of the electric lamp.

Phrases

  • as safe as houses

    • Completely safe.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • As a result, most Japanese banks naturally thought that land was as safe as houses.
      • One man said we were as safe as houses but it unnerves you.
      • A second great myth is that property is literally as safe as houses while the stock market is the investment equivalent of Dodge City.
      • Whilst the opposition parties and various independent bodies warned of the risk of increased electoral fraud, the government pressed on, claiming that the new postal votes were as safe as houses.
      • James says the belief that our personal finances are as safe as houses has fuelled an impressive consumer boom.
      • In comparison Ricardo, the Portuguese goalkeeper, was as safe as houses, and can consider himself unfortunate not to have parried away the Larsson effort, which gave Celtic their winning goal.
      • Sedbergh full back Richard Egan looked as safe as houses under a barrage of high kicks, and stand-off Darren Collins narrowly pulled his penalty attempt wide when the hosts were caught holding down.

  • get on (or along) like a house on fire

    • informal Have a very good and friendly relationship.

      Gav and my Aunt Janice got on like a house on fire
      Example sentencesExamples
      • My friend M went to see this guy and they got on like a house on fire.
      • Obviously working with Max was very important, and as soon as I met him at the read through, we got on like a house on fire, he's just a wonderful, wonderful kid, and a great actor.
      • But sometimes, as I said, you do find someone decent to chat with, and you get on like a house on fire.
      • A source revealed: ‘Robbie and Nicole met up last week and got on like a house on fire.’
      • ‘We got on like a house on fire,’ she said of her relationship with Chris.
      • If we did get our hands on her, we'd probably get on like a house on fire.
      • ‘Right from the word go we got on like a house on fire,’ Rafferty recalls.
      • And I was half expecting everyone to be their normal selves, and instantly get along like a house on fire.
      • The two of them had got on like a house on fire though, as they shared the same sense of humour, though they didn't have much else in common.
      • Mr Carter said: ‘They got on like a house on fire and were sorry to leave.’
      Synonyms
      get on well, get on, get along, be on good terms, be friends, be friendly, be compatible, relate well to each other, feel a rapport, see eye to eye, take to each other, warm to each other, find things in common

  • go (all) round the houses

    • 1Take a circuitous route to one's destination.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • ‘If nobody takes personal responsibility for the claim it will just go round the houses,’ she warns.
      • I tried again this morning, and still couldn't access Broadband, yet the status message was saying that there were no problems, so I started going round the houses, only to be told that my migration happened yesterday.
      • Well, Andy, our feature writer Stephen Lewis went all round the houses trying to find working telephone numbers for Loadbikes and Cyclone.
      • Was he your first choice from the moment you wrote the script, or did you have to go round the houses a little before you came to that conclusion?
      1. 1.1Take an unnecessarily long time to get to the point.
        a partner is likely to go all round the houses today, when it's obvious what they are hinting at
        Example sentencesExamples
        • Politicians have a penchant for going round the houses when answering tough questions.
        • As my husband says I'm can't say yes I have to go round the houses first and then give an answer which means yes but doesn't feature the word yes.
        • Experts in language learning recognise the value of going round the houses a bit to avoid those aspects of a language that you have problems with.
        • If you would just like to ask your solicitor, otherwise it will be a lot of going round the houses to achieve nothing except for saving the defendant having to pay something.

  • house and home

    • A person's home (used for emphasis)

      some people sell house and home to sit in a boat writing books
      Example sentencesExamples
      • But those boys have stolen everything I have in life and have now driven me out of my house and home.
      • I know grown women who, when they don't get their own way, go on a rampage, nearly destroying house and home.
      • At the same time, he postulated that ‘a woman's duty is to see to house and home.’
      • If the trend continued they would be put out of house and home.
      • What better way to make a quick buck than to sell off the government subsidized apartments and turf the 23,000 residents out of house and home?
      • Also if you get too many deer in one place they can eat themselves out of house and home,’ Mr Cubby added.
      • I'm so sorry, I'll probably eat you both out of house and home!
      • You certainly love her, but don't forget about all those times when her brother invited himself over for dinner, unannounced of course, eating the two of you out of house and home.
      • Our point of view was we were attacked by an aggressive military and in fact we were just defending house and home.
      • The book gives a fantastic insight into the city as it follows themes such as house and home, working for a living and entertainment through almost two millennia.

  • a house divided cannot stand

    • proverb A group or organization weakened by internal dissensions will be unable to withstand external pressures.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • In Arizona, the party of Lincoln should heed Lincoln's advice: ‘… a house divided cannot stand.’
      • It was Jesus, and much later Abraham Lincoln, that pointed out that a house divided cannot stand.
      • Every politician knows that a house that is divided against itself cannot stand.
      • ‘The church of Jesus Christ has been divided and a house divided cannot stand.’
      • Just the strains in the Anglican Communion Show that a house divided cannot stand.
      • A great man once said that a house divided cannot stand.

  • house of cards

    • 1A structure built out of playing cards precariously balanced together.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • Like a precariously balanced house of cards, the McCartney team collapsed on the eve of a high-profile 2001 launch, due to be held in Trafalgar Square.
      • Most ranchers deal with this by sticking to traditional practice - recognizing that a mistake would require them to change, and change could topple the whole operation like a house of cards.
      • Hustvedt is an excellent writer but the structure of the book seems as flimsy as a house of cards, and the resolution at the end highly unsatisfactory.
      • A false man, a man who did not earn his place where he is, is like a house of cards.
      • Similarly, our connectedness, our human compact, is sandwiched together like the floors in a house of cards that is easier to knock down than we might think.
      • The building collapsed like a house of cards burying its residents.
      • It will fall like a house of cards when the trump of truth is pulled out.
      • When they opened the door, the draft blew over Jan's house of cards.
      • He likened the relationship to a house of cards: Remove one species or habitat type in the system, and the whole thing comes tumbling down.
      • They show the transience of childhood through the representation of a house of cards lovingly built by two girls that is just about to be flattened by their boisterous brother as he waves a flag in mock military manner.
      1. 1.1Used to refer to an insubstantial or insecure situation or scheme.
        the special constitutional arrangement collapsed like a house of cards
        Example sentencesExamples
        • However to make this house of cards work, the casino has to be pumping out as much money as it can.
        • This is meant not just knock down the conspiracy theorist's house of cards, but also to destroy the notion that possibly, maybe, there could be some unnecessary and compromising complications here.
        • These tactics protect the military's house of cards for a while but it collapses the moment the principal actor is removed.
        • It may be a house of cards or window dressing to those of us who understand security, but the vast majority of the population does not understand security.
        • As events conspire to topple the rather precarious house of cards that Murdock has built for himself, he comes to realise that he is trapped in an ever-worsening cycle of despair.
        • But as the more perceptive economic commentators have noted, the rosy economic statistics and apparent buoyancy of the Australian economy rest on a house of cards.
        • But the pyramid of evidence-based medicine is not solid-it's a house of cards.
        • Her husband was at the top, the head joker in the house of cards.
        • But this is a house of cards, built on dreams and delusions, which will topple, not because of a renewal of the husband's past infidelity, but because of the wife's ineradicable distrust.
        • At that moment, I was grateful that I had squandered all the money I had been underpaid over the years and had nothing in the market, because I knew it was a house of cards.

  • keep (or make) a House

    • Secure the presence of enough members for a quorum in the House of Commons.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • They could hardly get Members to make a House before 10 o'clock.
      • Keep a House in case of a vote.

  • keep house

    • Do the cooking, cleaning, and other tasks involved in the running of a household.

      a young girl named Roxie came over to keep house for him
      Example sentencesExamples
      • I have been instructing her in all the basic cooking and keeping house ways.
      • She cooks, keeps house, dispenses food and kindness and runs the Lodge single-handed.
      • My mother kept house economically and cooked all the meals herself.
      • She keeps house for all of them and bears their children too.
      • Well, our kids were grown and I was really tired of keeping house.
      • So the one who had attended private school kept house while the one who could barely read ruled it.
      • All he said was that he was brought up to believe that the man went to work and the woman kept house.
      • The beneficiary of all this motorized magic was nearly every American who cleans or keeps house.
      • His kinswoman, the daughter of his half-sister, kept house for a painter who preferred his familiar environment, his familiar accessories and his familiar models, and used them again and again.
      • Girls learned how to cook and clean and keep house against the day that they might someday be wed to a wealthy man.

  • on the house

    • (of a drink or meal in a bar or restaurant) at the management's expense; free.

      our first rounds always came on the house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • As a peace offering, Rewpert told Gordon to bring over a couple of drinks on the house.
      • Ramsay told Hatton he was welcome any time to a meal on the house at his place in London.
      • We are invited by the hotel to a special, celebratory buffet - on the house.
      • As we were about to pay up and leave, the barman brought us a last round on the house.
      • I then informed her that as she was so nice, and this was her first visit to this bar, her drink was on the house.
      • During the meal, the chef may send out one or two little taste treats for diners to enjoy on the house.
      • It's the landlord's last night, so the final rounds of drinks are on the house.
      • Lunch and refreshments will also be on the house, on both days of the festival.
      • I'm guessing he didn't spend it on handguns or blasting caps, maybe just a few drinks on the house.
      • The Cretans almost always give you a drink on the house at the start or end of a meal.
      Synonyms
      free, free of charge, without payment, without charge, at no cost, for nothing, gratis

  • play house

    • (of a child) play at being a family in its home.

      I suggested exploring the woods or playing house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • I am a responsible member of society, but I still feel like a kid playing house, expecting the real world to catch up with me any second.
      • They make a joke of it, and look like little kids playing house by calling it a marriage.
      • When children play house, doctor-nurse or police-thief, they are not looking for an audience.
      • But I'm sure if you nicely explain your feelings, your folks would agree with you that playing house as kids means little when it comes to having a real boyfriend.
      • She loves mermaids, playing house, and it also came with lots of little things: a flower shower, a little boat, a tiny slide.
      • Mum and Dad have gone off on an epic trip north for a couple of weeks leaving us here to play house.
      • Living in the cottage in the early days felt like we were playing house.
      • A favorite game for her was simply to take the broom out into the dusty front ‘yard,’ sweep out lines to form rooms, and play house.
      • She hated playing house in the first place anyways, but Auntie insisted that she played with the girls on the street and made friends.
      • When my friends' 4-year-old wants to play house, I cheerfully pretend to drink tea from her little cup.

  • put (or set) one's house in order

    • Make necessary reforms.

      the Americans need to put their own economic house in order
      Example sentencesExamples
      • They have been told to put their house in order and have so far failed and even refused to do so.
      • Especially on long train trips, there is time to think, to mull over one's troubles, to put one's house in order, to ponder.
      • Let us first set our house in order before showing it off to others through the Net.
      • The corporate governance inspection report said we had to put our house in order.
      • It is time that we in this country put our house in order.
      • They bounced back, put their house in order and became a paradigm of how it can all work out.
      • Mr Fernandes said that his client had a poor record before 2000 but since then had tried to put his house in order.
      • Will you become a true Christian and set your house in order?
      • We don't have much time to put our house in order if we are to be hit again,’ he said.
      • And the overall message to the arbiters of the city's destiny is blunt and clear - set your house in order or else people will start looking elsewhere when they consider a location for their next round of investment.

  • set up house

    • Make one's home in a specified place.

      he moved to Manhattan and set up house on 54th Street
      Example sentencesExamples
      • He had set up house in Paris with his American wife.
      • But, a practical man, he set up house with a blacksmith's daughter who had been his housekeeper, and to underline her promotion sent her off to finishing school in Eastbourne.
      • He set up house and started a family in Stratford, but he didn't stay there long: throughout his career he lived in London, travelling back to visit his family now and then.
      • Given that a 16-year-old can legally get married and set up house, an in-between stage which lets them learn to cope with short periods of independence seems like a good idea.
      • He moved to London in 1964, set up house with schoolteacher Brian Taylor, and worked his way through London and local theatre.
      • It wasn't until I started making a list of things I needed to buy that I realised how many accoutrements are involved in setting up house.
      • Abi and I got married in 1993, and we set up house in Edinburgh.
      • They are even being prevented from setting up house in one place.
      • We do not see him begin his work or even set up house with his new wife.
      • In 1751 John Home married, and David and his sister set up house in Edinburgh, moving to slightly more luxurious quarters as his fortunes improved.

Derivatives

  • houseful

    • nounPlural housefuls ˈhaʊsfʊlˈhaʊsˌfʊl
    • It was a good distraction from my houseful of obligations.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • In the pictures from the burial, his wife Marie looked as distressed and tearful as any woman, left alone to bring up a houseful of children without much material support, might be expected to look.
      • We had a houseful because we have a townhouse here in Manhattan and a lot of people who couldn't get out, so we had a houseful of people.
      • And I hope we have a houseful of people.
      • And in a houseful of a lot of kids, and there were a lot of grand kids around, he would get on top of a chair to get attention if necessary.

  • houseless

    • adjective ˈhaʊsləsˈhaʊsləs
    • Just because I'm houseless doesn't mean I'm selfish.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • How does it differ for those in the developing world or those in the industrialized world - for those who are refugees or those who are houseless?
      • In the guise of providing shelter to siteless or houseless persons, the owners of immovable properties are made landless and also jobless.
      • When they first glimpsed Carmel, it reminded them of the Cornish coast (back then the area was treeless, still largely houseless, and windswept).
      • I get on a train, and am disgorged on a dark, houseless Merrylee Road.

Origin

Old English hūs (noun), hūsian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch huis, German Haus (nouns), and Dutch huizen, German hausen (verbs).

  • The word house is related to Dutch huis and German Haus, and their ancient ancestor may have been a root meaning ‘to hide’ found also in huddle (late 16th century). The House of Commons was first called by that name in the early 17th century, quickly followed by the Houses of Parliament, and the House of Lords. The house music heard in clubs from 1986 onwards was probably named after the Warehouse, a club in Chicago where the music was first popular. See also hussy

Rhymes

douse, dowse, Gauss, grouse, Klaus, louse, Manaus, mouse, nous, Rouse, souse, spouse, Strauss arouse, blouse, browse, carouse, Cowes, dowse, drowse, espouse, Howes, rouse
noun.1
phr.
 
 

Definition of house in US English:

house

nounhoushaʊs

  • 1A building for human habitation, especially one that is lived in by a family or small group of people.

    Example sentencesExamples
    • Land beside Blue Bridge Lane, currently a redundant building, would have 24 three storey houses built on it.
    • As you walk down towards it, the sky opens up, for in this rare Manhattan block almost all the buildings are period houses of just five storeys.
    • The plaintiffs were required to carry out certain repairs by the local council in order to render houses fit for human habitation.
    • On the other side of the road are normal, two storey houses.
    • Real foxes do, indeed, sometimes make their homes under human houses and, increasingly in this country at any rate, under city homes.
    • Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of the mysteries of life at every stage of it.
    • Most of the houses are two storeys (some three) and would be equivalent to a medium to large sized Queensland home.
    • One of the proposals, submitted by Joe Costello, proposes to construct 25 semi detached two storey houses.
    • Prices of houses have soared; building costs are going through the roof.
    • The residential portion of the building is located to the rear or on the upper floor of the house.
    • A loft extension in particular creates an instant extra storey to the house.
    • One of the new houses is three storeys high and the other is four, prompting fears that homes nearby will lose their privacy by being overlooked.
    • Following the fire, investigators found traces of an accelerant in the badly damaged ground floor of the house.
    • Condemning our houses as unfit for human habitation is a surefire way of clearing this area and making the area which they required for the Academy available.
    • I believe that he might later have gone to lodge at a house in Upper Church Street, Bath, with two of his sisters.
    • There could not have been more than 50 huts in all and a dozen or so single storey brick and mortar houses, overlooking the fields beyond.
    • The ground floor of the house has ramps so that disabled visitors get a chance to see the main rooms.
    • Inside, the house is on three storeys, with the ground floor including a drawing room, study and dining room.
    • This phrase originated in medieval times in Europe when most double storey houses did not have indoor toilets.
    • The application was for eight, two storey houses and eight bungalows organised in four clusters.
    Synonyms
    home, place of residence, homestead, lodging place, a roof over one's head
    1. 1.1 The people living in a house; a household.
      do you want the whole house woken up?
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Boethius was brought up in the house of the aristocratic family of Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus.
      • Every creak of a floor board or an opening door seems loud enough to wake up the whole house.
      • It only takes one forgetful person to leave theirs in the bathroom and the whole house would be using it.
      • He picked up his cell phone to call her but thought that he would be waking up the whole house.
      • I would have called you, but I didn't want to wake your entire house at seven on a weekend.
      Synonyms
      household, family, family circle, ménage, clan, tribe
    2. 1.2 A family or family lineage, especially a noble or royal one; a dynasty.
      the power and prestige of the House of Stewart
      Example sentencesExamples
      • A bigger wedding event will be probably take place then, but the date is yet to be set between the two royal houses.
      • They had already incurred the enmity of the royal houses of Europe, why add that of the bankers?
      • This little known renaissance play deals with tragedy which befalls two houses once a lady's honour has been compromised.
      • It is also possible to view Williams as a tragic figure, cursed like the house of Atreus or Kennedy.
      • They were sought after by Europe's royal houses long before many of today's classics were known.
      • In all honesty, however, I think this is the essence of our attempts to understand and make sense of the complexities of the British and European royal houses.
      • It is somewhat ironic that the last great monument of the house of Wessex was mainly a product of Norman culture.
      • Mountbatten was born to a family closely related to the house of Windsor.
      • Problems have beset the house of Versace since its founder was murdered seven years ago.
      • Mar decided to retaliate by raising the standard for the house of Stuart.
      • These Four royal houses shall be responsible for one of the greatest legends ever told in my homeland of Spain.
      • Starkey goes on to point out it would be hard for the house of Windsor to pull off the same trick.
      • The English and Scottish royal houses had become closely connected through marriage.
      • The coats of arms of most of the royal houses of Europe incorporate symbols of the 12 Tribes of Lesbos.
      • There's been a rash circulating around the royal houses of Europe… a rash of engagements and weddings that is.
      • The Blood Royal of this actual Grail lineage persists, via the female line, in the royal houses of Europe to this day.
      • The Picts also practiced matrilineal descent - thus their royal houses all descended through the female line.
      • She cut down the servants at the tables, and massacred all in the house of Akhat.
      Synonyms
      clan, kindred, family, tribe, race, strain
    3. 1.3with modifier A building in which animals live or in which things are kept.
      a reptile house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • The majority of the Zoo's birds live in the beautiful, sanctuary-like Bird House but birds are also scattered throughout other exhibits.
      • The Reptile House gives visitors an insight into the reptile and amphibian world in its many shapes and sizes.

  • 2A building in which people meet for a particular activity.

    a house of prayer
    Example sentencesExamples
    • Does the Holy Spirit and fire ever need to come down in our houses of worship?
    • Jesus, berating the money-changers in the Temple, called the building a house of prayer.
    • What problems are reported in the newspaper or talked about in the houses of worship as community challenges?
    • As we gather in our houses of worship, let us begin a process of seeking the healing and grace of God.
    • What is not in dispute is that the nation has turned in much greater numbers to houses of worship and organized religion.
    • It is not right to make a fortress of Christ's church, which is a house of prayer.
    • Six weeks ago many of us did not even notice whether or where the U.S. flag stood in our houses of worship.
    • Scalia cited a 1970 Supreme Court case involving tax exemptions for houses of worship in New York.
    • He also noted that it did not take into account the mosques and Muslim houses of prayer destroyed since 1948.
    1. 2.1 A business or institution.
      he had purchased a publishing house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Most film companies converted to production houses to service the high demand for local content to fill broadcast hours.
      • Purchase recommendations from all of the major financial houses bejewel the company's stock like diamonds.
      • There, rather like the men from Del Monte, the port houses would select the wine from the local farmers.
      • In larger transactions, a syndicate of venture capital houses or private equity firms might combine to provide the equity finance.
      • The central government plans to privatise publishing houses in a bid to open the sector and lure investment.
      • The film board is a Canadian government film production house.
      • He also appealed to business houses to help the institution with the sinking of a borehole since the school has no water supply.
      • This beneficial film-forming yeast grows naturally on the surface of the wine, although some houses now choose to cultivate their own flor culture.
      • I know where to go when I absolutely need new news, but the old print cycle is still ruling publishing in many news houses.
      • The police and civil administration generally has been ordered to ensure that all shops and business houses remain closed during prayer time.
      • There seemed to be only a half dozen corporate publishing houses left.
      • The items included kites, toiletries, chocolates, biscuits, washing soaps, breakfast cereals and beans which she sourced from various business houses in the capital city.
      • In some cases, the wines produced by these houses are lesser in quality today than, let's say, ten years ago.
      • They range from the traditional activities of the acceptance houses in international trade to all types of capital issues and financial services business.
      • Banking firms and financial houses announced thousands of job losses in recent weeks.
      Synonyms
      firm, business, company, corporation, enterprise, establishment, institution, concern, organization, operation
    2. 2.2 A restaurant or inn.
      as modifier I ordered a bottle of their house wine
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Food arrives at our table - not food we have asked for, but a small appetiser with the compliments of the house.
      • We'll dine at the fanciest and snootiest drive-thru restaurants and waffle houses.
      • I spent the next two hours pouring mineral water, serving glasses of house wine and decanting bottles at the bar.
      • Get a couple of glasses of house champagne, relax and enjoy the sunset from way up in the sky.
      • I'd cook rabbit stuffed with black pudding, which is one of our house specialties in the Lindsey House.
      • The British education in high-street curry houses will help them find their way around menus, but after that, preconceptions should be discarded.
      • There are a few trusty pizza houses and French restaurants for those who can't face cooking after a day of strenuous exercise.
      • With all the gigs, curry houses and general yah-yah activity in Brick Lane now, you'd expect Shoreditch station to be thronging with people.
      • You can sip a cup of tea at the tea house and restaurant inside the garden.
      • He was also part of a small group of young mathematicians who met weekly in a wine house.
      • If that is true, then what a truly pitiful bunch of lazy, coffee house analysts we are.
      • In most reception venues, the house alcohol is always more expensive than if you supply your own.
      • They think it reflects well on them that the wine they choose to be their house wine is a posh one.
      Synonyms
      inn, bar, tavern, hostelry, taproom
    3. 2.3dated A brothel.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • In an attempt to create Canada’s first cooperative bawdy house, a sex-work organization will submit a request to Parliament for amnesty from an anti-brothel provision within the next six months.
      Synonyms
      brothel, house of ill repute, house of prostitution
    4. 2.4 A theater.
      a hundred musicians performed in front of a full house
      Example sentencesExamples
      • The community responds and you screen in 800 seat theatres to packed houses.
      • These days, the film plays to packed houses when cinemas screen it at Christmas time, and is in constant demand from video-buyers.
      • This summer teenagers involved in the project performed to packed houses at Bradford's Alhambra Theatre on two consecutive nights.
      • The production bemused and beguiled a packed house in which I seemed to be the only person over 22.
      • He has become one of Hull's best known local music stars, and regularly performs to packed houses at the Adelphi Club in west Hull.
      • We need a few theatre houses with a congenial atmosphere in tune with the local architecture of the land.
      • There's a certain energy in sold-out houses, and an anarchic feeling so late on a weeknight, for an unadvertised event.
      • The Beatles, Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly were among stars performing to packed houses.
      • It could have come to Edinburgh with any one of a number of Irish plays from its normal repertoire, performed to packed houses and won critical acclaim.
      • The Jermyn Street Theatre is yet another much needed space for the revival of those gems of the musical theatre that are too small for anything like the major West End houses.
      • THERE ARE at least three of Dileep's films now running to packed houses in the city theatres.
      • Since then it has played to packed houses, and after London the production is off to the USA and France.
      • Cinema houses like Nandan screen good films from across the world.
      • In a small house with a tall actor, the rake and actor's frame easily manage to blot out a lot of the action.
      • That attendance at theatre houses has dropped can only point to the fact that the quality of productions has not been impressive as has been the investment.
      • The production enjoyed packed houses at The Gilded Balloon, in Edinburgh 2003, with much critical acclaim.
      • Most of the picture houses and theatres carried a lot of publicity from their managers' point of view.
      • We just played off each other so well and had the best time doing it and the funniest part was, we wound up having packed houses, other people loved it too.
      Synonyms
      audience, crowd, those present, listeners, spectators, viewers, gathering, assembly, assemblage, congregation

  • 3A religious community that occupies a particular building.

    the Cistercian house at Clairvaux
    Example sentencesExamples
    • Joseph II reduced the number of religious houses belonging to the contemplative orders.
    • Hereward and his family seem to have been the traditional protectors of the religious houses in the area.
    • Most Welsh religious houses had in any case always been poorly endowed.
    • Throughout the Middle Ages, Suffolk was dominated by the two liberties and the many other religious houses.
    • His first important job was as a visitor of religious houses under Henry, an appointment through which he greatly expanded his father's estate.
    • There they settled in Bethlehem and established his and hers monastic houses.
    • Monks from the various orders in Europe had flocked to England to set up religious houses.
    • By the time of her death in 1581, Teresa had founded more than a dozen monastic houses.
    • Giberti, like Sadoleto, chose to reside in his see, where he disciplined his clergy, reformed religious houses, and took the cure of souls seriously.
    • In England, for example, there were some fifty religious houses in 1066 and perhaps 1,000 monks and nuns.
    • During the Middle Ages, the scriptoria and workshops of European religious houses took a strictly instrumental approach.
    • During the last years of Leo XIII's pontificate, religious houses tried to win over the poor for Catholicism.
    • Recruitment to the parish clergy fell and monastic houses never recovered.
    • It could have been commissioned by a religious house, dedicated to the Virgin, for use as the reredos of a high altar.
    • In Britain too, there can be no doubt that the major religious houses were the focus of much landed wealth, munificence, and pilgrimage.
    • After the dissolution of the religious houses, where the poor used to be relieved, there was for long no settled provision for them.
    1. 3.1 A residential hall at a school or college.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • No parts of the university were closed to the public (of course, the residential fraternity houses were another matter).
      • The boarding houses are Grange Court, Sandon Lodge, and Hainault House.
      • In the final chapter, Kiely tells us about his adventures as a master of one of Harvard's residential houses.
      • Rotherly is a Girls’ Boarding House for the Westgate School in Winchester.
    2. 3.2British formal A college of a university.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • He studied at the Castle, one of four teaching houses of the university which offered two year Arts degrees based almost entirely on the teachings of Aristotle.
      • College House is New Zealand’s oldest and most traditional University College, and is home to 152 students at the University of Canterbury.

  • 4A legislative or deliberative assembly.

    the sixty-member National Council, the country's upper house
    Example sentencesExamples
    • On Wednesday, opposition parties disrupted proceedings of both houses of parliament, demanding the minister quit.
    • An independent candidate also has to obtain an additional 20 backers from the two parliamentary houses or local councils.
    • I would recommend a tour of the houses of parliament to anyone.
    • Ireland has two houses of Parliament, the Upper House known as the Seanad and the Lower House known as the Dáil.
    • What I don't understand is why they don't just have elections for two houses of parliament.
    • This introduced a national parliament with two houses for India.
    • The referendum has been widely adopted to protect key aspects of state constitutions, such as the governor and the two houses of parliament.
    • Under the constitution, the Czech president is elected by a majority in both houses of parliament.
    • It would be the first time since 1981 that a government has controlled both houses of Australia's parliament.
    • The bill had been passed by both the houses of parliament before being signed by acting president Mian Mohammad Soomro.
    • At the state level, some of the legislatures are bicameral, patterned after the two houses of the national parliament.
    • Amendments must be approved by two-thirds of both houses of parliament and a majority of voters in a national referendum.
    • Few commentators have noted the provision for women's seats in both houses of parliament.
    • Unless both houses of parliament expressly disapprove within 12 months, the marriage may proceed.
    • The legislature has two houses, the house of senators and the house of deputies.
    • The government won not only re-election, but control of both houses of parliament.
    • The king, however, will appoint one of the houses of the bicameral legislature, allowing him to control lawmaking.
    • Democratic leaders in both houses say they'll bring it up for a vote and they expect it to pass.
    • That, according to Parliamentary legal adviser Eshaam Palmer, can be done only by both houses of Parliament sitting together.
    • A provision for leases to be approved by both houses of parliament would safeguard against a sale by stealth, he said.
    Synonyms
    legislative assembly, legislative body, chamber, council, parliament, diet, congress, senate
    1. 4.1the House The House of Representatives or (in the UK or Canada) the House of Commons or Lords.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • ‘It is a fig leaf of a token element of elected peers designed to mask the design of the Prime Minister and his cronies to keep their grip on this House,’ he said.
      • Oldfield spoke in the House two other times.
      • I came in 1976, when I had gotten an advance copy of a report of a House committee investigating CIA misdeeds.
      • Ideally, the president of the GMC would present the annual report in public, before a committee of both houses of parliament.
      • The oldest member of parliament, he served as speaker of the house when it first met.
      • However, a House subcommittee has scheduled hearings later this month to investigate the FCC's record of enforcing decency standards.
      • Brown's ethics problems have included a House investigation of her connection with a jailed African businessman.
      • It's a tragic reminder of the reality which all of us in this House, and in the Lords, have to deal with in considering these matters.
      • Thus, with a cosy majority of 196 in a House of 234, her position remains unassailable.
      • And in the 1994 elections they went on to win a House majority.
      • He called for a House investigation into his actions and was cleared the following year of any wrongdoing.
      • When I spoke in the House on this subject on 8 December, I quoted similar stories from the police forces of Cambridgeshire, Essex, and Greater Manchester.
      • This was confirmed by a House Select Committee on Assassinations report in 1979 and recently by a US Department of Justice investigation.
      • As they walked through the halls of a House office building, interns noticed the office of Mary Kaptur (D-Ohio).
      • I turn immediately to the decision of this House in Hedley Byrne & Co Ltd v Heller & Partners Ltd.
      • She couldn't produce her promised list of 272 supporters in a House of 543.
      • They also altered the rules to make it harder to initiate an ethics investigation of a House member.
      • We accept that a time will come when the houses of parliament and the government will have to agree a final form of the bill that is less than ideal.

  • 5A style of popular dance music typically using synthesized drum and bass lines, sparse repetitive vocals, and a fast beat.

    Example sentencesExamples
    • Dance music, and especially house music, has an uncanny power to turn the most earnest honor student into a frenetic dance machine.
    • He moved to the USA to teach in the Eighties, but hip hop and house passed him by, as he immersed himself in world music.
    • Next door, was a cafe run by a former ska musician with a love for house and techno.
    • I mainly listen to minimal techno house, mostly because that's what I play out.
    • We were influenced by electro, hip-hop, house music, jazz-funk, reggae, everything really.

  • 6Astrology
    Any of the twelve divisions of the celestial sphere, based on the positions of the ascendant and midheaven at a given time and place, and determined by any of a number of methods.

    Example sentencesExamples
    • His seventh house contains Mars while Libra is at the Ascendant containing Uranus.
    • When a planet is placed in an angular house, it is performing more powerfully.
    • Also your boyfriend is represented by Saturn in the seventh house, which for you is the house of a husband or boyfriend.
    • It is also good to have the ruler of the Ascendant and the 2nd house in mutual reception.
    • A horoscope needs to be drawn and studied and the meaning of aspects as well as the positioning of houses and planets have to be understood.
    1. 6.1 A celestial division represented as a sector on an astrological chart, used in allocating elements of character and circumstance to different spheres of human life.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Every astrology chart is divided into houses, starting with the Ascendant line and working anti-clockwise around the rest of the chart.
      • It is conjunct Jupiter and opposite Mars at 15 degrees of Pisces in the third house.
      • The angular houses represent our own ‘seats of power’, places of familiarity and control.
      • I look further along and I see the Moon is at the top of the chart in the ninth house at 14 degrees of Virgo.
      • Many planets of one person's chart fall into the angular houses of the other's natal chart.
adjectivehaʊshous

  • 1(of an animal or plant) kept in, frequenting, or infesting buildings.

    Example sentencesExamples
    • The study also showed that rather than living in hutches, four out of 10 pet rabbits were house rabbits.
    • Anise kneels down beside me, touching my hair in her right hand and stroking it like a house cat.
    • I couldn't keep my room clean and barely knew how to take care of two house cats.
    • They sneak up on their prey just like a house cat sneaks up on a bird or toy one slow step at a time.
    • They had to make their own bread and their own butter with cream from the house cow.
    • It was a paddock for the grazing of house cows and the Governor's horses.
    • Members of the family say the eel is an agreeable house pet, that eats twice a day and is fond of strips of raw chicken or fish.
    • The cougar reportedly snatched a house cat and ran off into the bush with it.
    • She was almost like a house cat as she rubbed up against our legs and purred loudly.
    • Clare has been interested in house rabbits for a year and has found a growing network of enthusiasts.
    • It was so small, about the size of a house cat, and Evy figured it to be just a foal.
    • Its beautiful appearance and devotion to its owners make it a well-loved house pet.
    • We tried to see if we could find a house cat for the family, that would not go out, but we couldn't guarantee it wouldn't escape.
    • She met no one along the way and only had one brief scare when she ran into a house cat, yet she made it to the library quietly unnoticed.
    • Shampoos are not residual as they are rinsed off, and it is not much fun washing the average house cat.
    • However, most dog lovers do not intend to leash their house pets indefinitely.
    • He has no more weight to him then a house cat, but a small scar runs across the right part of his lips.
    • From the tops of these rats the size of house cats watched them with unblinking eyes.
    • He's just a house pet and is given quite a lot of freedom to move abut the place.
    • Lounging around the family home, the Dane's good house manners make it a good house pet.

  • 2Relating to a business, institution, or society.

    a house journal
    Example sentencesExamples
    • The main purpose of an external house journal is to promote the organization, its products, and its services.
    • Business Week, which wants to be the house journal for Web 2.0 badgers, has no doubts.
    • This section looks firstly at factors concerned with the fund manager's organisational structure and secondly at matters relating to the implementation of the house policy.
    • It was house policy to serve all-comers but equally to bar anyone who was abusive or aggressive.
    • A set of house rules may be accepted as valid by a group of players wherever they play.
    1. 2.1 (of a band or group) resident or regularly performing in a club or other venue.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Jim Bridges and Cory Papirny are the house band rhythm section this time around.
      • He takes his place near the back of the house band, playing the spoons in perfect tempo.
      • As always, the house band will be in residence with all the usual suspects!
      • Accompanying this was a sound and light show that would match any of the big pop concerts as well as a fantastic house band.
      • The fare was a mixture of jazz and blues standards, but the house band did not play it safe.
verbhaʊzhouz
[with object]

  • 1Provide (a person or animal) with shelter or living quarters.

    attempts by the government to house the poor
    Example sentencesExamples
    • Fears drug users and ex-offenders could be housed in an old people's sheltered complex in Leigh have been dismissed by council chiefs.
    • More than 500 students and nurses will be housed in a huge new accommodation block situated in the heart of the city centre.
    • Bates is initially expected to be housed in Probation Service accommodation in Yorkshire when he is released.
    • About 30 people have been treated for minor injuries and a hundred are being housed in emergency accommodations.
    • That intent has changed from housing for workers, to housing for war vets, to housing the poor.
    • Elderly residents from sheltered accommodation blocks are being temporarily housed in a day care centre.
    • A few large blocks had arcaded courtyards like Italian Renaissance palaces; for these blocks housed both rich and poor.
    • The literally tens of thousands of dollars spent on pets in this country could be much better spent on feeding the hungry and housing the poor.
    • As a country, we have long forgotten that the model we use for housing the poor in state-built houses is that of the first mining township, Kimberley, well over a century ago.
    • An estimated 300,000 people were left homeless in Mumbai, India when authorities bulldozed acres of slums that were housing the city's poor.
    • The women and children cited by Coleman in the column appear to be housed in shelters.
    • They will consider whether the family should be rehoused or housed in accommodation provided by the local authority.
    • If an asylum-seeker turned up with his family I am sure they would be housed in far better accommodation than these poor people have to live in.
    • Possible ideas include creating halfway houses, or transitional care areas, where patients could be housed until appropriate accommodation is arranged.
    • They now provide funds for the voluntary groups to help in the retaining and re-education of homeless people who will be housed in permanent accommodation.
    • It enables vulnerable people to be housed in suitable accommodation so that they can try and turn their lives around.
    • They prodded authorities to raze the hundreds of alley shantytowns housing the city's poor and destitute.
    • The obstacles in the U.S. to housing the poor adequately are profound.
    • On the one hand, the state has, through its Reconstruction and Development Programme, prioritised housing the poor.
    • Some 500 homeless victims of the quake were being housed in relief tents and others were sheltering from the freezing cold winds in buses.
    Synonyms
    accommodate, provide accommodation for, provide with accommodation, give accommodation to, make space for, make room for, give someone a roof over their head, provide a roof over someone's head, provide with a place to work, harbour

  • 2Provide space for; accommodate.

    the museum houses a collection of Roman sculpture
    Example sentencesExamples
    • The top half of the structure houses Lum's wholesale restaurant supply business.
    • The experience of being inside the David and Peggy Rockefeller Building, which houses the museum's new galleries, is uplifting.
    • A storeroom on the ground floor houses 12 cylinders, each with a capacity of 35 kg.
    • During the construction work, nursery school children and staff will be housed in temporary accommodation opposite the existing building.
    • The new grant will be used to refurbish the east wing which will house the main residential accommodation.
    • The Fifth Avenue building houses galleries, administrative offices and the museum's school.
    • In the meantime the Fire Station will be temporarily housed in alternative accommodation until the new premises are ready.
    • That building now houses all its activities most of which, as the respondents agree, are charitable in nature.
    • Indeed, this fascinating piece might be better housed in a gallery space.
    • The market houses about six organic merchants including Robert.
    • It has since been renamed Balnahowan and now houses the Central Fisheries Board.
    • The network could not operate without the electrical equipment which was housed in the shelter and that is included in the determination.
    • Previously they have been separated from us and housed in poor accommodation with a lack of IT facilities.
    • A good diversity of coral life on the reef houses equally diverse marine animals.
    • Members of staff will be housed in the current accommodation until completion of the new development.
    • The Golden Plaza Tower, which also houses shops and a school, is crowned by the revolving restaurant.
    • The Mountbatten building houses labs and offices for the Optoelectronics research centre and the School of Electronics and Computer Science.
    • The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is housed in one such building, at 97 Orchard Street.
    • The Amida hall, blending the secular with the religious, houses one or more Buddha images within a structure resembling the mansions of the nobility.
    • The Van Gogh museum houses the largest collection of this troubled man's masterpieces, and is definitely worth a look.
    Synonyms
    contain, hold, store, cover
    1. 2.1 Insert or fix (something) in a socket or mortise.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • A socket for receiving the wedge base electric lamp houses socket terminals serving to retain the electric lamp and to provide contact with lead wires of the electric lamp.
      • The joinery not only meets the requirements of modern engineering, it is the classic housed mortise and tenon joinery that has withstood the test of time.

Phrases

  • house and home

    • A person's home (used for emphasis)

      some people sell house and home to sit in a boat writing books
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Our point of view was we were attacked by an aggressive military and in fact we were just defending house and home.
      • The book gives a fantastic insight into the city as it follows themes such as house and home, working for a living and entertainment through almost two millennia.
      • I know grown women who, when they don't get their own way, go on a rampage, nearly destroying house and home.
      • You certainly love her, but don't forget about all those times when her brother invited himself over for dinner, unannounced of course, eating the two of you out of house and home.
      • If the trend continued they would be put out of house and home.
      • What better way to make a quick buck than to sell off the government subsidized apartments and turf the 23,000 residents out of house and home?
      • Also if you get too many deer in one place they can eat themselves out of house and home,’ Mr Cubby added.
      • But those boys have stolen everything I have in life and have now driven me out of my house and home.
      • I'm so sorry, I'll probably eat you both out of house and home!
      • At the same time, he postulated that ‘a woman's duty is to see to house and home.’

  • a house divided cannot stand

    • proverb A group or organization weakened by internal dissensions will be unable to withstand external pressures.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • A great man once said that a house divided cannot stand.
      • In Arizona, the party of Lincoln should heed Lincoln's advice: ‘… a house divided cannot stand.’
      • Just the strains in the Anglican Communion Show that a house divided cannot stand.
      • Every politician knows that a house that is divided against itself cannot stand.
      • It was Jesus, and much later Abraham Lincoln, that pointed out that a house divided cannot stand.
      • ‘The church of Jesus Christ has been divided and a house divided cannot stand.’

  • house of cards

    • 1A structure built out of playing cards precariously balanced together.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • Hustvedt is an excellent writer but the structure of the book seems as flimsy as a house of cards, and the resolution at the end highly unsatisfactory.
      • When they opened the door, the draft blew over Jan's house of cards.
      • Similarly, our connectedness, our human compact, is sandwiched together like the floors in a house of cards that is easier to knock down than we might think.
      • A false man, a man who did not earn his place where he is, is like a house of cards.
      • The building collapsed like a house of cards burying its residents.
      • Like a precariously balanced house of cards, the McCartney team collapsed on the eve of a high-profile 2001 launch, due to be held in Trafalgar Square.
      • It will fall like a house of cards when the trump of truth is pulled out.
      • They show the transience of childhood through the representation of a house of cards lovingly built by two girls that is just about to be flattened by their boisterous brother as he waves a flag in mock military manner.
      • Most ranchers deal with this by sticking to traditional practice - recognizing that a mistake would require them to change, and change could topple the whole operation like a house of cards.
      • He likened the relationship to a house of cards: Remove one species or habitat type in the system, and the whole thing comes tumbling down.
      1. 1.1An insubstantial or insecure situation or scheme.
        his case was a house of cards until Attorney Jabowski stepped in
        Example sentencesExamples
        • It may be a house of cards or window dressing to those of us who understand security, but the vast majority of the population does not understand security.
        • However to make this house of cards work, the casino has to be pumping out as much money as it can.
        • As events conspire to topple the rather precarious house of cards that Murdock has built for himself, he comes to realise that he is trapped in an ever-worsening cycle of despair.
        • These tactics protect the military's house of cards for a while but it collapses the moment the principal actor is removed.
        • At that moment, I was grateful that I had squandered all the money I had been underpaid over the years and had nothing in the market, because I knew it was a house of cards.
        • But as the more perceptive economic commentators have noted, the rosy economic statistics and apparent buoyancy of the Australian economy rest on a house of cards.
        • But this is a house of cards, built on dreams and delusions, which will topple, not because of a renewal of the husband's past infidelity, but because of the wife's ineradicable distrust.
        • Her husband was at the top, the head joker in the house of cards.
        • This is meant not just knock down the conspiracy theorist's house of cards, but also to destroy the notion that possibly, maybe, there could be some unnecessary and compromising complications here.
        • But the pyramid of evidence-based medicine is not solid-it's a house of cards.

  • keep house

    • Do the cooking, cleaning, and other tasks involved in the running of a household.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • I have been instructing her in all the basic cooking and keeping house ways.
      • So the one who had attended private school kept house while the one who could barely read ruled it.
      • Well, our kids were grown and I was really tired of keeping house.
      • Girls learned how to cook and clean and keep house against the day that they might someday be wed to a wealthy man.
      • All he said was that he was brought up to believe that the man went to work and the woman kept house.
      • The beneficiary of all this motorized magic was nearly every American who cleans or keeps house.
      • She keeps house for all of them and bears their children too.
      • His kinswoman, the daughter of his half-sister, kept house for a painter who preferred his familiar environment, his familiar accessories and his familiar models, and used them again and again.
      • My mother kept house economically and cooked all the meals herself.
      • She cooks, keeps house, dispenses food and kindness and runs the Lodge single-handed.

  • on the house

    • (of a drink or meal in a bar or restaurant) at the management's expense; free.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • The Cretans almost always give you a drink on the house at the start or end of a meal.
      • It's the landlord's last night, so the final rounds of drinks are on the house.
      • Ramsay told Hatton he was welcome any time to a meal on the house at his place in London.
      • Lunch and refreshments will also be on the house, on both days of the festival.
      • As we were about to pay up and leave, the barman brought us a last round on the house.
      • I'm guessing he didn't spend it on handguns or blasting caps, maybe just a few drinks on the house.
      • We are invited by the hotel to a special, celebratory buffet - on the house.
      • During the meal, the chef may send out one or two little taste treats for diners to enjoy on the house.
      • I then informed her that as she was so nice, and this was her first visit to this bar, her drink was on the house.
      • As a peace offering, Rewpert told Gordon to bring over a couple of drinks on the house.
      Synonyms
      free, free of charge, without payment, without charge, at no cost, for nothing, gratis

  • play house

    • (of a child) play at being a family in their home.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • Living in the cottage in the early days felt like we were playing house.
      • I am a responsible member of society, but I still feel like a kid playing house, expecting the real world to catch up with me any second.
      • When my friends' 4-year-old wants to play house, I cheerfully pretend to drink tea from her little cup.
      • When children play house, doctor-nurse or police-thief, they are not looking for an audience.
      • She loves mermaids, playing house, and it also came with lots of little things: a flower shower, a little boat, a tiny slide.
      • A favorite game for her was simply to take the broom out into the dusty front ‘yard,’ sweep out lines to form rooms, and play house.
      • Mum and Dad have gone off on an epic trip north for a couple of weeks leaving us here to play house.
      • But I'm sure if you nicely explain your feelings, your folks would agree with you that playing house as kids means little when it comes to having a real boyfriend.
      • She hated playing house in the first place anyways, but Auntie insisted that she played with the girls on the street and made friends.
      • They make a joke of it, and look like little kids playing house by calling it a marriage.

  • put (or set) one's house in order

    • Make necessary reforms.

      they need to put their own economic house in order
      Example sentencesExamples
      • And the overall message to the arbiters of the city's destiny is blunt and clear - set your house in order or else people will start looking elsewhere when they consider a location for their next round of investment.
      • They bounced back, put their house in order and became a paradigm of how it can all work out.
      • Mr Fernandes said that his client had a poor record before 2000 but since then had tried to put his house in order.
      • It is time that we in this country put our house in order.
      • They have been told to put their house in order and have so far failed and even refused to do so.
      • Will you become a true Christian and set your house in order?
      • We don't have much time to put our house in order if we are to be hit again,’ he said.
      • Especially on long train trips, there is time to think, to mull over one's troubles, to put one's house in order, to ponder.
      • The corporate governance inspection report said we had to put our house in order.
      • Let us first set our house in order before showing it off to others through the Net.

  • set up house

    • Make one's home in a specified place.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • He moved to London in 1964, set up house with schoolteacher Brian Taylor, and worked his way through London and local theatre.
      • He had set up house in Paris with his American wife.
      • We do not see him begin his work or even set up house with his new wife.
      • It wasn't until I started making a list of things I needed to buy that I realised how many accoutrements are involved in setting up house.
      • Abi and I got married in 1993, and we set up house in Edinburgh.
      • In 1751 John Home married, and David and his sister set up house in Edinburgh, moving to slightly more luxurious quarters as his fortunes improved.
      • They are even being prevented from setting up house in one place.
      • But, a practical man, he set up house with a blacksmith's daughter who had been his housekeeper, and to underline her promotion sent her off to finishing school in Eastbourne.
      • Given that a 16-year-old can legally get married and set up house, an in-between stage which lets them learn to cope with short periods of independence seems like a good idea.
      • He set up house and started a family in Stratford, but he didn't stay there long: throughout his career he lived in London, travelling back to visit his family now and then.

  • like a house on fire (or afire)

    • 1informal Vigorously; furiously.

      Example sentencesExamples
      • The book starts off like a house on fire.
      • Bucks came back like a house on fire in the second half with dribbling wizard Clement Mazibuko doing wonders with the ball.
      • Rovers opened like a house on fire, but for all the speed and accuracy they showed, they could not find a breach in the Blues' defence.
      • They started the game like a house on fire, and star striker Siyabonga Nomvete almost scored in the third minute after connecting a pass from Bennet Mnguni, but the Congolese goalkeeper was alert.
      • ‘We set off like a house on fire, then allowed them to claw their way back to within two points,’ he said.
      • Vic Rangers set off like a house on fire and really took the game to Albion in the first ten minutes.
      • For that to happen the Boks will need to start like a house on fire.
      1. 1.1Excellently.
        Ben and my aunt got along like a house on fire
        Example sentencesExamples
        • We set off like a house on fire, our first set saw us force a goal line dropout putting them under real pressure and we scored.
        • However, it was the 23-year-old Bingham who started like a house on fire and he won all four frames before the interval, helped by breaks of 51, 78, 70 and 95.
        • England's bizarre match against Italy a week ago, when Clive Woodward's men started like a house on fire and then stuttered almost to a standstill, did offer some positive pointers for Scotland.
        • The Pirates brought in a whole host of new signings in the summer and started off like a house on fire under new manager Ian Atkins.
        • Naturally, I am expecting to get along with her like a house on fire.
        • They have started the season like a house on fire and are averaging six goals each game during a run of seven consecutive victories.
        • I met her in January 2005, and we've gotten along like a house on fire.
        • Bury opened up like a house on fire and the contest was well over when they led 22-0 in the opening quarter.
        • Leigh started like a house on fire against a big physical side, with Parr, Browning and Ranson working well as a unit and Lloyd, Thorpe, Peet and Wilkinson running well.
        • He seemed to be getting on with Lara like a house on fire, but from what he could tell she wasn't really into dancing frivolously with him much.
        Synonyms
        get on well, get on, get along, be on good terms, be friends, be friendly, be compatible, relate well to each other, feel a rapport, see eye to eye, take to each other, warm to each other, find things in common

Origin

Old English hūs (noun), hūsian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch huis, German Haus (nouns), and Dutch huizen, German hausen (verbs).

noun.1
phr.
 
 
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