house 
Inilcitum, prob. < MHG. hulst, a covering, or 
hulse, hulsche, OHG. hulsa, G. hiilse, a husk, shell, 
= D. hulse, a husk, shell; the same, with added 
formative -s, as E. hull 1 : see hull 1 and holster.] 
If. A covering; housing; especially, a covering 
of textile material, as for a piece of furniture, 
fitted more or less accurately to the object cov- 
ered. 
Six lyons' hides, with thongs together fast ; 
His upper part defended to his waist; 
And where man ended, the continued vest 
Spread on his " 
2. A child's coverlet. [Prov. Eng.] House ol 
mall, in horse-arnwr, a kind of bard consisting of a more 
or less complete covering of chain-mail, usually in two 
parts, one for the head, neck, and fore quarters of the 
horse, the other for the croup and hind quarters. Com- 
pare trapper. 
house 2 (hous), '. t. [Formerly also Itouss; < OF. 
housser, houser, cover with a housing; from the 
noun: see house^, lutuss, n. Cf. housing.] To 
cover with or as with a housing. 
He [the Protector] was carried from Somerset-house in 
a velvet bed of state drawn by six horses, houss'd wth ye 
same. Evelyn, Diary, Oct. 22, 1658. 
This dark, crimson -houxed bedstead. 
New Princeton Rev., I. 108. 
house-agent (hous'a'jent), n. One employed 
in the sale, renting, and care of houses. 
house-ball (hous'bal), n. A boys' game in 
which a ball is thrown by one player against a 
house or wall, in order that the second player 
may strike it with a bat on the rebound. 
house-boat (hous'bot), n. A boat fitted up as 
a house, and commonly more or less resembling 
one in form and arrangements, for permanent 
or temporary habitation . Such boats have long been 
the only dwellings of many thousands of families in the 
waters of some eastern countries, intended either to be 
stationary or to be moved by towing or by oars or sweeps, 
and in Hindustan and Burma are known as house-boats. 
They abound even more largely in China ; but the boat 
distinctively called a house-boat there is one for use in 
excursions or in traveling. The English house-boat is an 
adaptation of the latter idea, being supplied with all con- 
veniences for living on board ns in a house during a pro- 
longed excursion, especially on the Thames. 
The ordinary house-boat, as you know, is a great big un- 
wieldy thing, with a square stern ; you don't go voyages 
in her; . . . and you take down your party of friends, and 
have skylarking. 
W. Black, Strange Adventures of a House-Boat, Hi. 
house-hote (hous'bot), n. [< house + bate, ME. 
form of boot 1 , payment.] In law, a sufficient 
allowance of wood to repair the house and sup- 
ply fuel : a right enjoyed by some tenants on 
English manors. 
housebreaker (hous 'bra "ker), . One who 
breaks, opens, and enters a house with feloni- 
ous intent. 
Now, Goodman Macey, ope thy door, 
We would not be house-breakers. 
Whittier, The Exiles. 
househreaking (hous'bra/'king), . [< house 1 
+ breaking. Cf. AS. hus-brice = OFries. hus- 
breke, housebreaking.] The breaking or open- 
ing of a house with the intent to commit a fel- 
ony or to steal or rob. See burglary. 
house-car (hous'kar), n. A box-car; a closed 
railroad-car for carrying freight. 
house-carlt (hous'kiirl), n. [A mod. form repr. 
late AS. huscarl, < hus, house, -t- carl, carl: see 
carl.] In early Danish and early English his- 
tory, a member of the body-guard of a noble, 
chieftain, or king. 
He [Cnut] kept but forty ships and a few thousands of 
huscarbt, a paid bodyguard which was strong enough to 
check isolated disaffection, but helpless against a national 
revolt. J. R. Green, Conq. of Eng., ix. 408. 
The Rousecarl, the professional soldier, with his coat of 
mail and his battle-axe. 
K. A. Freeman, Herman Conquest, II. 259. 
house-cricket (hous'krik' l 'et), n. The common 
cricket, Aclieta domestica. See cut under cricket. 
house-dog (hous'dog), . A dog kept to guard 
a house. 
house-dovet (hous'duv), . One who stays at 
home. 
Then the home-tarriers and house-doves that kept Rome 
still began to repent them that it was not their hap to go 
with him [Coriolanus]. 
North, tr. of Plutarch (ed. Skeat), p. 14. 
I ... was not such a house-dove . . . but that I had 
visited some houses in London. 
Greene, Thieves Falling Out (Harl. Misc., VIII. 401). 
house-duty (hous'du"ti), n. In England, a tax 
imposed on inhabited houses, established about 
1695. It was repealed in 1834, but reimposed 
in place of a window-tax in 1851. Also houye- 
tax. 
2902 
house-engine (hous'en'jiu), . A steam-engine 
whicli is so constructed as to depend to some 
extent on the building in which it is contained, 
and is not independent or portable. 
house-factor (hous'fak // tor), . Same as house- 
ii !/i ill. 
housefather (hous'fa'THer), . [< house 1 + 
father; after G. hausvater = D. huisvader = Icel. 
huxfadhir = Dan. Sw. husfader.] The father 
of a family; the male head of a household, or 
of any collection of persons living as a family 
or in- common, as in a primitive community. 
He was dozing, after the fashion of honest housefathers. 
Thackeray, Virginians, xxxii. 
The simple minds of uncultured men unhesitatingly 
believed that the spirit of the departed House Father 
hovered round the place he loved in life. 
W. E. Hearn, Aryan Household, p. 39. 
house-finch (hous'finch), n. Bee finch 1 . 
house-flag (hous'flag), . The distinguishing 
flag of a shipping or other business house or 
firm ; the flag of the house to which a ship be- 
longs. 
[I] turned my eyes aloft where the house-Jlag, dwarfed by 
height, was rattling like a peal of musketry at the main- 
royal-masthead. If. C. Russell, Jack's Courtship, xx. 
house-fly (hous'fli), n. [= D. huisvlieg = Dan. 
husflue = Sw. husfluga.] The common fly, 
Musca domestica. It is a dipterous or two-winged in- 
sect, of the family Muscidce and the order Diptera, of the 
suborder Brachycera (having short feelers or antenna^ 
and of the subdivision Dichcelcr (having the sucker or pro- 
boscis composed of only two pieces). It is a good repre- 
sentative of the large family Muxcidoz, and indeed of the 
whole order Diptera, It is found in nearly all parts of the 
world. It lays its eggs in bunches or clusters In almost 
any kind of decaying animal or vegetable matter, as car- 
rion, manure, and other filth, and the maggots hatch in a 
day or less, according to the degree of heat (of decompo- 
House-fly (Musca domestica). 
arva or maggot ; A. puparium ; < . adult fly (cross shows natural 
size); a, mouth-parts; t, foot. (All magnified.) 
sition) to which they are subjected. The larvae are small, 
headless, legless maggots, which attain their full size in 
about two weeks, and then crawl into some dry place to 
pupate. This process occupies a week or two, and on its 
completion the perfect fly emerges from the pupa. The 
house-fly is furnished with a suctorial proboscis, from 
which, when feeding on any dry substance, it exudes a 
liquid ; this, by moistening the food, fits it to be sucked. 
Its feet are beset with hairs, each terminating in a disk 
which is supposed to act as a sucker, enabling it to walk 
on smooth surfaces, even with its back down, as on a ceil- 
ing. These disks are supposed to exude a liquid, making 
the adhesion more perfect. See also cut of compound eye, 
under eyel. 
houseful (hous'ful), n. [< house 1 + -//.] A 
full complement for a house ; as much or as 
many as a house will hold or accommodate, or 
as it requires : as, a houseful of goods, of fur- 
niture, or of people. 
There was a world of dressmakers to see, and a world of 
shopping to do, and a houseful of servants to manage. 
C. D. Warner, Backlog Studies, p. 277. 
house-fungus (hous'fung'gus), n. See fungus. 
househeadt, n. The housetop. 
As she was up on the househead, 
Behold, on looking down, 
She saw Adam o' Gordon and his men, 
Coming riding to the town. 
Loudoun Castle (Child's Ballads, VI. 254). 
house-hent, [< ME. houshenne.] A domestic 
hen. 
Rith as the hous-hennes vppon londe hacchen, 
And cherichen her chekonys ffro chele of the wynter. 
Richard the fadeless, II. 143. 
househillingt, [ME. howsehilUnge.'] Roof- 
ing. Prompt. Parv. 
household (hous'hold), n. and a. [< ME. hous- 
hoM, howsold = Sw. hush&ll, household, family, 
= G. haushalt, housekeeping; cf. D. huishouden 
= G. haushalten (inf. as noun) (cf. Dan. hushold- 
ning = Sw. htishdlliting, housekeeping); from 
a verb assumed from Jwuseholder, q. v. ; not di- 
housekeeper 
redly < house 1 + hold 1 .'] I. n. 1. An organized 
family and whatever pertains to it as a whole ; 
a domestic establishment. 
In so moche that in on House men waken 10 7/""x- 
holdes. Mandeville, Travels, p. 209. 
Thanne cometh the .vij. deedli synnes 
With the wickid aungil liousholde to holde. 
Hymns to Virgin, etc. (E. E. T. S.), p. 61. 
My father and Lavinia shall forthwith 
Be closed in our household's monument. 
Shak., Tit. And., v. 8. 
The Protestant officers of the royal household were in- 
formed that his majesty [Louis XIV. J dispensed with their 
services. Macaulay, Hist. Eng.,vi. 
Every person who was in the Hand of the same Father 
was a member of the Household, ana offered his vows at 
the same hearth and at the common tomb. 
W. E. Hearn, Aryan Household, p. 66. 
2. A family considered as consisting of all those 
who share in the privileges and duties of a com- 
mon dwelling; the family, including servants 
and other permanent inmates. 
I baptized also the household of Stephanas. 1 Cor. i. 16. 
3f. Goods and chattels for housekeeping. 
For wel ye knowe, a lord in his houshold 
Ne hath nat every vessel al of gold : 
Somme ben of tree. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 99. 
My will is that all my plate and other . . . household, 
and books shall be equally divided between them. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 440. 
4. pi. A technical name among millers for the 
best flour made from red wheat, with a small 
portion of white wheat mixed. Fallows. Con- 
troller of the household. See controller. Coroner of 
the royal household. See coroner. Marshal of the 
king's >r queen's) household. See marshal. Master 
of the household. See master. 
II. a. Of or pertaining to the house and 
family; domestic; familiar: as, household fur- 
niture ; household ways. 
The household nook, 
The haunt of all affections pure. 
Keble, Christian Year, First Sunday in Lent. 
Household Brigade. See household troops, below. 
Household gods. See godi. Household stuff, the 
furniture of a house ; the vessels, utensils, and goods of 
a family. Household suffrage, or household fran- 
chise, in Britixh politics, the right enjoyed by household- 
ers and lodgers of voting for members of Parliament. 
Household suffrage was established in the boroughs, with 
various restrictions, by the Reform Bills of 1867-68, and 
greatly enlarged and extended to the counties by the 
Franchise Bill of 1884. Household troops. In Great 
Britain, a body of troops employed as a special guard of 
the sovereign and the garrison of the metropolis. They 
consist of three regiments of cavali-y (the 1st and 2d Llfe- 
Guards and the Royal Horse-Guards) and three of infantry 
(the Grenadier, Coldstream, and Scots Fusilier Guards), 
the former numbering abont 1,300 and the latter 6,000. 
Collectively they are called the Household Brigade. 
Household word, a word, name, or saying in very famil- 
iar use. 
Then shall our names, 
Familiar in his mouth as household words, . . . 
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered. 
Shak., Hen. V., IT. S. 
householder (hous'hol'der), n. [< ME. hous- 
liolder, househaldere = D. huishouder = LG. 
hiisholder = G. Itanslialter = Sw. hushdllare = 
Dan. husholder, householder, i. e. housekeeper; 
< house 1 + holder. Hence a verb not used in E., 
= D. huishouden = G. haushalten = Sw. htish&lla, 
and the noun household, q. v.] 1. The master 
or chief of a family; one upon whom rests the 
duty of supporting and governing the members 
of a family or household. 
The lord that Is a howsholder, 
With faire festis folk he fat. 
Holy Rood (E. E. T. 8.), p. 210. 
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an 
houtehulder, which went out ... to hire labourers into 
his vineyard. Mat. xx. 1. 
2. One who occupies a house ; specifically, in 
law, one who owns or holds and occupies a 
house, or a part of one which constitutes a 
separate abode, and who habitually dwells 
therein, with others, if any, who are dependent 
on him. 
Towns in which almost every householder was an Eng- 
lish Protestant. Macaulay. 
Compound householder. See compound^. 
householdryt, . [X household + -ry.] House- 
hold stuff. 
To furnish house with householdry, 
And make provision skilfully. 
Tuner, Ladder to Thrift. 
housekeep (hous'kep), v. i. ; pret. and pp. house- 
kept, ppr. housekeeping. [< house-keep-er, house- 
keeping; cf. householder, household.] To keep 
house; live as a family in a house. [Colloq., 
U. S.] 
housekeeper (hous 'keeper), n. [< ME. hous- 
kepere; < house 1 + keeper; a later equiv. of house- 
