hose 
garment covering the legs and the waist, worn 
by men . The hose of the middle ages generally covered 
the person from the waist to the toes ; they were secured 
to the upper garment by points or some similar device. At 
times the covering of one leg and side of the body was of 
different material and color from that of the other side. In 
the sixteenth century the leg-coverings were divided into 
two parts, and the word huge was applied rather to the 
breeches, the covering of the lower part of the leg and 
foot being called the stocking or nether-stuck. 
Departynge of hire hoses in whit and reed. 
Chaucer, Parson's Tale. 
Doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to 
petticoat Shak., As you Like it, ii. 4. 
And he had on yet all this while a paire of hosen of 
Deere-skinnes with the haire on. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 433. 
Towards the close of the [sixteenth] century the hose of 
that period also became " breeches " ; and so, in process of 
time, the old and long-used word " hose " came to be re- 
tained only as an equivalent for "stockings." 
Encyc. Brit., VI. 472. 
2. In present use (as either singular or plu- 
ral), covering for the feet and lower part of the 
legs ; stockings. Short stockings, not reaching 
to the knee, are distinctively called half-hose or 
socks, or, rarely, ankle-hose. 
The belted plaid and tartan hose 
Did ne'er more graceful limbs disclose. 
Scott, L. of the L., iL 25. 
The article of attire in which he took chief pleasure 
was hose; and the better to show the gay colors of these, 
he wore low-cut shoes of the finest calf-skin, turned up 
at the toes. The Century, XXXV. 950. 
3. A flexible tube or pipe for conveying a fluid 
to a required point, as water for the service of 
a fire-engine, for watering a garden, etc. Hose 
of the larger kinds for such uses, to which the term is usu- 
ally restricted, is made chiefly of leather, gutta-percha, 
cotton, or india-rubber. Smaller tubing, as for gas in a 
drop-light, for acoustic instruments, etc., to which the 
name may also be applied, is made of many different ma- 
terials and in various ways. 
It was now towards sunset on Saturday, and the inhabi- 
tants were washing the fronts of the houses with the hose. 
C. D. Warner, Their Pilgrimage, p. 148. 
4. The hollow part of a spade, or other tool of 
a like kind, which receives the end of the shaft 
or handle. 5f. In printing, formerly, upright 
iron rods, which connected the spindle of the 
old hand-press with its platen, and regulated its 
movement. Moxon. 6. The sheaf of corn. 
[Prov. Eng.] 7t- The outer covering of straw 
or corn. Davies. 
The honey-dews . . . close and glew up the tender hose 
of the ear. Ellis, Modern Husbandman (1750), II. i. 2. 
Ankle-hose. See def. 2. Hose Of mail. Seechausses. 
hose (hoz), v. t. ; pret. and pp. hosed, ppr. hos- 
ing. [< ME. hosen; < hose, n.~\ If. To clothe 
with hose ; clothe. 
Clothe cut ouerthwart and agaynste the wulle can neuer 
hoose a manne cleane. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 124. 
2. To play upon with a hose ; drench with wa- 
ter from a hose. [Recent.] 
In the morning we go on deck at an early hour. Tom 
and the Doctor help to man the pumps. . . . Then we are 
most of us hosed. Athenaeum, No. 3199, p. 207. 
hose-bridge (hpz'brij), . A portable track so 
arranged that it can be laid on a street railroad 
for the passage of cars over lines of hose from 
a fire-engine, which may be laid across the 
track during a fire. Also called hose-jumper, 
hose-protector, and hose-shield. 
hose-carriage (hoz'kar'aj), . A truck or car- 
riage with a reel or rests on which the hose for 
a fire-engine is carried. Also hose-cart. 
hose-carrier (hdz'kar''i-er), . A gripper or 
hand-tool for lifting hose when full of water; 
a pair of hose-hooks. 
hose-cart (hoz'kart), n. Same as hose-carriage. 
hose-clamp (hoz'klamp), w. A flexible band 
with a screw for drawing the ends of two pieces 
of hose together. 
hose-company (hoz'kum"pa-ni), . A body of 
firemen to attend and man"a hose-carriage. 
hose-coupling (hoz'kup"ling), n. A joint-piece, 
or a pair of interlocking connecting pieces, by 
which sections of hose can be joined together 
end to end. Half-hose coupling. See coupling. 
hose-hook (hoz'huk), n. 1. A hook for lifting 
the hose of a fire-engine. 2t. pi. In printing, 
the hooks by which the platen of the old form 
of printing-press was suspended. 
hose-in-hose (hoz'in-hoz'), n. A gardeners' 
name for certain flowers in which the corolla 
ppears to be double. This state of things is brought 
bout usually by the calyx becoming petaloid, as in Rho- 
dodendron (Azalea,) ttnuxna of the gardens, but also by 
actual duplication of the corolla, as in Primula viilytn-i*, 
or by the presence of an inner series of petal-like stamens, 
which by their cohesion form a second pseudo-corolla 
within the ttrst, as in Datura fastuosa, Gloxinia, etc. 
2895 
hose-jumper (hoz'jum'per), n. Same as hose- 
bridge. 
hoseman (hoz'man), n. ; pi. hosemen (-men). 
One of the men "who manage the hose of a 
fire-engine, and direct the stream. 
The electricity would descend by the stream of water 
and enter the bodies of the hosemen managing the appa- 
ratus. Elect. Rev. (Amer.), XI. 2. 
hosent, An old plural of hose. 
hose-protector (hoz'pro-tek'tor), . Same as 
hose-bridge. 
hosert, A Middle English variant of hosier. 
hose-reel (hoz'rel), n. 1. A reel or drum on 
which hose is wound when not in use or for con- 
veyancs. 2. A hose-carriage. [Bare.] 
hose-shield (hoz ' sheld), . Same as hose- 
bridge. 
hoshen (ho'shen), n. [So., also hoeshins (in- 
geniously accom. to shins), altered with addi- 
tional pi. suffix from ME. hosen, pi. of hose, 
q. v.] Same as hogger. 
hosier (ho'zher), n. [< ME. hosier, hosyer, 
hoseare, hosiare, hosegere (also hoser); < hose 1 
+ -ier 1 , as in grazier, brazier 1 , etc.] One who 
deals in hose (stockings and socks), or in goods 
knitted or woven like hose, such as undergar- 
ments, jerseys, cardigans, and the like. For- 
merly this term was applied to tailors who sold 
men's garments ready-made. 
hosiery (ho'zher-i), n. [< hosier + -y, or <. hose 
+ -i-ery : see hosier and -ery."] 1. Specifically, 
hose of all kinds for the foot and leg; stockings 
and socks collectively ; by extension, the whole 
class of goods in which a hosier deals; the 
stock of a hosier. 2. A factory where stock- 
ings, undergarments, etc., are woven by ma- 
chinery. 3. The business of a hosier ual- 
briggan hosiery, a fine cotton hosiery, of which the 
threads are unusually hard, having very little nap or wool- 
ly surface : so called from the town of Balbriggan in the 
county of Dublin, Ireland, where it is made. 
hosiomartyr (ho'si-o-mar'ter), n. [< Gr. oaan; 
holy, + fiaprvp, martyr.] In the calendar of 
the Greek Church, a martyr who was a monk 
or a nun. 
hospice (hos'pis), n. [< F. hospice = Sp. Pg. 
hospicio = It. ospizio, < L. hospitium, hospitality, 
a lodging, an inn, < hospes (hospit-), a host, a 
guest: see host 2 .] A house of entertainment 
and refuge for strangers; especially, such an 
establishment kept by monks on some passes 
in the Alps to give shelter and aid to travelers. 
Originally they were probably for pilgrims on the journey 
to Rome. The best-known hospice is that of the Great 
St. Bernard. 
hospitable (hos'pi-ta-bl), a. [< OF. hospita- 
ble = Sp. hospedable = It. ospitabile, < ML. as if 
*hospitabilis, < hospitare, receive as a guest: see 
hospitate, hosfi, v., and of. hospital.] 1. Kind 
and cordial toward strangers or guests ; freely 
affording shelter and food ; extending a gener- 
ous welcome to visitors. 
We were received with open arms by all our old friends ; 
and when they do open their arms, there are no people 
so kind and so hospitable as the Scotch. 
Lady Holland, Sidney Smith, viii. 
A king 
Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable. 
Tennyson, Princess, i. 
2. Characteristic of or affording generous or 
friendly entertainment ; indicating or devoted 
to hospitality: as, hospitable manners; a hos- 
pitable table. 
His hospitable gate 
The richer and the poor stood open to receive. 
Drayton, Polyolbion. 
For harbour at a thousand doors they knock'd, 
Not one of all the thousand but was lock'd ; 
At last an hospitable house they found. 
Dryden, tr. of Ovid's Metamorph., viii. 
It was really delightful to see the old squire seated in 
his hereditary elbow chair, by the hosjtitable fireside of 
his ancestors. Irving, Sketch-Book, p. 247. 
3. Figuratively, generous in mind ; free in re- 
ceiving and entertaining that which is present- 
ed to the mind: as, hospitable to new ideas. 
It [the religion of the Greeks] was hospitable to novel- 
ties and was composite in character. 
Amer. Jour. Philol., VIII. 86. 
hospitableness (hos'pi-ta-bl-nes), n. The qual- 
ity of being hospitable ; hospitality. 
His [Abraham's] benignity to strangers, and hospitable- 
ness, is remarkable among all his deeds of goodness. 
Barrow, Works, I. xxxi. 
hospitably (hos'pi-ta-bli), adv. In a hospita- 
ble manner; with generous and cordial enter- 
tainment. 
The former liveth as piously and hospitably as the other. 
Swift. 
hospitaget (hos'pi-taj), n. [= Pg. hospedagem, 
< ML. liospitagium, accom. form of hospitaticum, 
hospital 
a right of exacting entertainment, hospitality, 
< Itiwpitare, receive as a guest: see hospitate 
and fcs< 2 .] Hospitality. 
Of vile ungentlenesse, or hospitages breach. 
Spenser, F. (t., III. x. 6. 
hospital (hos'pi-tal), a. and . [I. a. < OF. 
hospital = Sp. hospital = It. ospitale, a., < L. 
hospitalis, of or relating to a guest or host ; as 
a noun, a guest; < hospes (hospitr-), a host, a 
fuest : see hosfl, n. Hence hospitality. II. n. 
ME. hospital, hospitalle (also abbr. spitel, early 
mod. E. spital, spittle: see spittle 2 ), < OF. hos- 
pital, a hospital, mod. F. hopital = Pr. Sp. Pg. 
hospital = It. ospedale = G. Dan., etc., hospital, 
< ML. hospitale, a large house, a palace, an inn, 
neut. sing. (cf. L. hospitalia, apartments for 
guests, neut. pi.) of L. hospitalis, of or relating 
to a guest or host : see I. The same word, con- 
tracted, appears in E. as hostel (of ME. origin) 
and hotel (of recent introduction) ; a fourth form 
appears in the obs. spittle 2 .] I.t a. Hospi- 
table. 
I am to be a guest to this hospital maid [Venice] a good 
while yet. Howell, Letters, I. i. 35. 
II. n. If. A place of shelter or entertain- 
ment; an inn. 
Whenas they spide a goodly castle, plaste 
Foreby a river in a pleasaunt dale; 
Which choosing for that evenings hospitale, 
They thither marcht. Spenser, F. Q., II. ix. 10. 
2. An institution or establishment for dispens- 
ing hospitality or caring for the needy ; an asy- 
lum for shelter or maintenance. This old sense 
still appears in the term foundling hospital, and in the 
names of some institutions in Great Britain founded for 
either the care or education, or both, of persons needing 
help : as, Greenwich Hospital for retired seamen, a na- 
tional institution ; Christ's Hospital for the free education 
of boys, founded by the corporation of London, chartered 
in 1553, and often called the Blue-Coat school, from the 
uniform of its pupils. 
Whan the kynge Amaunt was deed, the kynge Bohors 
cleped hys companye, and seide that gladly wolde hether 
make an hospitall where-ynne a man myght euer after 
serue oure lorde god for the soule of hym as longe as the 
worlde dured. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 369. 
The Foundling Hospital of London was incorporated 
by Royal Charter in 1739. Encyc. Brit., IX. 483. 
3. Now, specifically, an establishment or insti- 
tution for the care of the sick or wounded, or of 
such as require medical or surgical treatment. 
Hospitals are either public or private, free or paying, 
or both combined, and general or special with respect 
to the kinds of disease or classes of persons admitted. 
In ancient Greece the sanctuaries of yKsculapius includ- 
ed establishments closely akin to medieval and modern 
hospitals. 
A Roman lady named Fabiola, in the fourth century, 
founded at Rome, as an act of penance, the first public 
hospital, and the charity planted by that woman's hand 
overspread the world. Lecky, European Morals, II. 85. 
At the end of the last and beginning of this century, 
fever hospital* were generally called "houses of recovery." 
Encyc. Brit., XII. 302. 
Convalescent hospital. See convalescent. Cottage 
hospital, a small and inexpensive establishment, simply 
organized, and designed to provide hospital accommoda- 
tion and care in a small and isolated community. The 
first cottage hospital in England was established at Cran- 
leigh in 1859, and was merely an ordinary cottage. Cot- 
tage-hospital system a system of which the aim is 
to provide small and isolated communities with inexpen- 
sive, serviceable, and easily managed hospitals. General 
hospital, a hospital to which cases of all kinds were for- 
merly admitted. Under later provisions and regulations, 
however, certain classes of disease may be excluded from 
a general hospital, such as smallpox, venereal disease, 
dementia, etc. Hospital gangrene. See uangrene. 
Hospital Saturday. See Hosjtital Sunday. Hospital 
steward. (a) A non-commissioned staff -officer in the Unit- 
ed States army who compounds prescriptions, adminis- 
ters medicine, and has general charge, under the direction 
of an army surgeon, of the sick and of hospital prop- 
erty. Hospital stewards are graded as first, second:, and 
third class, and are permanently attached to the medical 
corps, (b) In the navy, the designation formerly given to 
the apothecary. Hospital Sunday, a Sunday set apart 
annually in all the churches, chapels, etc., for a special 
collection of contributions for the benefit of the public 
hospitals. In London the first Hospital Sunday Mas ob- 
served in June, 1873, in response to an invitation sent out 
to the churches from the Mansion House, and since that 
time the collection has always been made in June. In 
New York Hospital Sunday, appointed for a similar collec- 
tion for the hospitals, falls on the last Sunday in the year. 
The money so collected is distributed among the hospi- 
tals in proportion to the number of free patients, without 
regard to sect or creed. On the preceding Saturday, known 
as Hospital Saturday, similar collections are made in the 
synagogues, and also in many places of business. In Lon- 
don, on Hospital Saturday, in addition to the collections 
made at places of business, factories, etc., ladies take 
charge of boxes in the streets. Lock hospital, a general 
name in Great Britain for a hospital for the treatment 
of venereal diseases. (Thomas, Med. Diet.) The origin 
of the name is indicated in a bequest made in 1452 by 
Ralph Holland, a merchant tailor, of twenty shillings to 
the "Lock lazar-house, outside St. George's gate." This 
"Lock lazar-house," which was so called as being special- 
ly isolated or quarantined, afterward became an infirmary 
