noun.
A covering; housing; especially, a covering of textile material, as for a piece of furniture, fitted more or less accurately to the object covered.
noun.
A child's coverlet.
noun.
A building designed to be used as a place of residence, or of human occupation for any purpose: as, a dwelling-house; a banking-house; a house of worship; a public house.
noun.
Hence An abiding-place; an abode; a place or means of lodgment; a fixed shelter or investment: as, the hermit-crab carries its house on its back.
noun.
A building used for some purpose other than human occupation: usually with a descriptive prefix: as, a cow-house; a warehouse; a tool-house.
noun.
The persons collectively who dwell together under one roof; a family; a household.
noun.
A family regarded as consisting of ancestors, descendants, and kindred; a race of persons from one stock; a tribe; especially, a noble family or an illustrious race: as, the house of Hapsburg; the house of Hanover; the house of Israel or of Judah.
noun.
A legislative body; usually, one of the divisions of the legislative branch of a government acting separately, or of any deliberative body divided into two chambers: as, the House of Lords or of Commons in the British Parliament; the House of Representatives in the United States Congress; the House of Bishops and the House of Delegates in the American Episcopal Church.
noun.
Specifically, in the United States, the lower house, or House of Representatives, the more numerous of the two bodies of the national legislature. The name is also given in some States to the corresponding body in the State legislature. See congress, 4.
noun.
The audience or attendance at a place of entertainment.
noun.
In com., a firm or commercial establishment: as, the house of Jones Brothers.
noun.
Chamber; room; specifically, in provincial English use, the ordinary sitting-room in a farm-house; in sulphuric-acid works, one of the chambers in which the acid is formed.
noun.
In astrology, a twelfth part of the heavens as divided by great circles drawn through the north and south points of the horizon, in the same way as meridians pass through the earth's poles.
noun.
A square or division on a chess-board.—
noun.
The workhouse; poorhouse.
noun.
An outhouse; a privy.
noun.
In some tunicates, as Appendicularia and Oikopleura, a temporary gelatinous envelop, representing the tunic of other forms. It is formed with great rapidity as a secretion from the surface of the ectoderm and is frequently thrown off and renewed.