Home Department noun

The official title, now rarely used, of the Home Office (qv below)

home economics singular noun

Domestic science, household skills and management

home economist noun

home farm noun

The farm attached to and near a large house

homeˈfelt adjective

1. Felt in one's own breast
2. Inward
3. Private

homeˈ-fire noun

The domestic hearth, with its activities and connections

home fries plural noun (US)

Sliced pieces of potato fried in oil or butter

homeˈgirl noun (US slang)

1. A female acquaintance from one's own neighbourhood or town
2. A member of a youth gang

homeˈ-grown adjective

Produced in one's own country, or garden

home guard noun

1. A member of a volunteer force for the defence of a country
2. (with caps) a force of this kind (first formed in Britain in the war of 1939–45)

home help noun

A person employed by the local authority to help disabled or elderly people with domestic work

homeˈ-keeping adjective

Staying at home

homeˈland noun

1. Native land, fatherland
2. Mother country
3. Formerly in South Africa, the formal name for an area reserved for black African peoples (also Bantustan)

homeˈ-life noun

Domestic life

home loan noun

A mortgage

homeˈ-made adjective

1. Made at home
2. Made in one's own country
3. Plain

homeˈmaker noun

A housewife or house-husband

homeˈmaking noun

home market noun

The market for goods in the country that produces them

home movie noun

A motion picture made at home, usu by an amateur

home nurse noun

A district nurse

Home Office noun

The government department broadly responsible for the domestic civil affairs of the United Kingdom as a whole

homeˈowner noun

Someone who owns his or her own home

home page noun (computing)

The first or main page of an Internet website

home plate noun (baseball)

The final point which a batter must reach in order to score a run

home port noun

The port at which a boat is registered

homeˈ-producedˈ adjective

Produced within the country in question, not imported

home range noun

The area within which an animal normally confines its activities

home report noun

A statement of the condition of a dwelling-house that is for sale, made available by the seller to prospective buyers

Home Rule (also without caps) noun

Self-government, such as that claimed by Irish, Scottish and Welsh Nationalists, including a separate parliament to manage internal affairs

homeˈ-rulˈer noun

An advocate of Home Rule

home run noun (baseball)

1. A hit that goes far enough to allow the batter to make a complete circuit of all four bases
2. The score made in this way

home-school transitive verb

(of parents) to teach (their children) at home rather than send them to school

Home Secretary noun

The head of the Home Office (qv above)

home shopping noun

Buying products and services by means of telecommunications such as the Internet or cable television

homeˈsick adjective

Pining for home

homeˈsickness noun

homeˈ-sigˈnal noun

A signal at the beginning of a section of railway line showing whether or not the section is clear

homeˈspun adjective

1. Spun or made at home
2. Not made in foreign countries
3. Plain, unadorned
4. Simple, artless, rustic
5. Inelegant

noun

1. Cloth made at home
2. An unpolished person (Shakespeare)

homeˈstall noun (obsolete)

1. A homestead
2. A farmyard

homeˈstead noun

1. A dwelling-house with outhouses and enclosures immediately connected with it
2. A piece of public land allotted under special laws to a settler (US and Aust)
3. The house occupied by the owner or manager of a sheep or cattle station (Aust and NZ)

homeˈsteader noun

homeˈsteading noun (orig US)

A scheme by which people are permitted to buy, or live rent-free in, semi-derelict buildings and improve them with the help of Government grants, etc

home straight or home stretch noun

1. The last stretch of a racecourse
2. The final or winning stage of anything

homeˈ-thrust noun

1. In fencing, a hit that goes home where it is aimed
2. A pointed remark that goes home

home time noun

The end of the formal school day at a day school

home town noun

The town where one's home is or was

home truth noun

A pointed, usu unanswerable, typically wounding, statement made direct to the person concerned

home unit noun (Aust and NZ)

A flat or apartment

home video noun

A home movie made with a video camera

homeˈward-boundˈ adjective

Bound homeward or to one's native land

homeˈwork noun

1. Work or preparation to be done at home, esp for school
2. Paid work, esp piecework, done at home

homeˈworker noun

A person who works from home, esp someone who is linked to an office by computer, and under terms and conditions similar to those of conventional office workers

homeˈworking noun

home zone noun

A residential street or area where traffic-calming measures, the provision of benches, children's play areas, etc are intended to create a safer social environment and encourage pedestrian use

at home

1. In one's own house
2. Ready to receive a visitor
3. Feeling the ease of familiarity with a place or situation (see also under at¹)

bring home to

1. To prove to, in such a way that there is no way of escaping the conclusion
2. To impress upon

do one's homework (informal)

To prepare oneself, eg for a discussion by acquainting oneself with the relevant facts

eat someone out of house and home (informal)

To live at the expense of another person so as to ruin him or her

go or strike home

(of a remark, etc) to impress itself duly on the mind of the person addressed

home and dry

1. Having arrived or achieved one's aim, etc
2. Safe, successful, secure

home from home

A place where one feels comfortable and at ease

long home

The grave

make oneself at home

To be as free and unrestrained as in one's own house

not at home

1. Out of one's house
2. Not receiving visitors

nothing to write home about (informal)

Not very exciting or attractive

pay home

1. To strike to the quick
2. To retaliate