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home

Syllabification: (home)
Pronunciation: /hōm/

Translate home | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of home

noun

  • 1the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household:I was nineteen when I left home and went to college they have made Provence their home
  • the family or social unit occupying a home:he came from a good home and was well educated
  • a house or an apartment considered as a commercial property:low-cost homes for first-time buyers
  • a place where something flourishes, is most typically found, or from which it originates:Piedmont is the home of Italy’s finest red wines
  • informal a place where an object is kept.
  • 2an institution for people needing professional care or supervision:an old people’s home
  • 3 Sports the goal or end point.
  • the place where a player is free from attack.
  • (in lacrosse) each of the three players stationed nearest their opponents’s goal.
  • Baseballshort for home plate.
  • a game played or won by a team on their own ground.

adjective

[attributive]
  • 1of or relating to the place where one lives:I don’t have your home address
  • made, done, or intended for use in the place where one lives:traditional home cooking
  • relating to one’s own country and its domestic affairs:Japanese competitors are selling cars for lower prices in the US than in their home market
  • 2(of a sports team or player) belonging to the country or locality in which a sporting event takes place:the home team
  • played on or connected with a team’s own ground:their first home game of the season
  • 3denoting the administrative center of an organization:the company has moved its home office

adverb

  • to or at the place where one lives:what time did he get home last night? I stayed home with the kids
  • to the end or conclusion of a race or something difficult:the favorite romped home six lengths clear
  • Baseball to or toward home plate.
  • to the intended or correct position:he drove the bolt home noisily

verb

[no object]
  • 1(of an animal) return by instinct to its territory after leaving it:a dozen geese homing to their summer nesting grounds
  • (of a pigeon bred for long-distance racing) fly back to or arrive at its loft after being released at a distant point.
  • 2 (home in on) move or be aimed toward (a target or destination) with great accuracy:more than 100 missiles were launched, homing in on radar emissions
  • focus attention on:a teaching style that homes in on what is of central importance for each student

Phrases

at home

in one’s own house.
in one’s own neighborhood, town, or country:he has been consistently successful both at home and abroad
comfortable and at ease in a place or situation:sit down and make yourself at home
confident or relaxed about doing or using something:he was quite at home talking about Eisenstein or Brecht
ready to receive and welcome visitors:she took to her room and was not at home to friends
(with reference to sports fixtures) at a team’s own ground:Houston lost at home to Phoenix

bring something home to someone

make someone realize the full significance of something:her first-hand account brought home to me the pain of the experience

close (or near) to home

(of a remark or topic of discussion) relevant or accurate to the point that one feels uncomfortable or embarrassed.

come home

Golf play the second nine holes in a round of eighteen holes. Compare with home (see go1).

come home to someone

(of the significance of something) become fully realized by someone:the full enormity of what was happening came home to Sara

drive (or hammer or press or ram) something home

make something clearly and fully understood by the use of repeated or forcefully direct arguments.

hit (or strike) home

(of a blow or a missile) reach an intended target.
(of words) have the intended, especially unsettling or painful, effect on their audience:she could see that her remark had hit home
(of the significance or true nature of a situation) become fully realized by someone:the full impact of life as a celebrity began to hit home

home free

having successfully achieved or being within sight of achieving one’s objective:at 7-0 they should have been home free

a home away from home

a place where one is as happy, relaxed, or comfortable as in one’s own home.

home is where the heart is

proverb your home will always be the place for which you feel the deepest affection, no matter where you are.

home sweet home

used as an expression of one’s pleasure or relief at being in or returning to one’s own home.

Derivatives

homelike

Pronunciation: /ˈhōmˌlīk/

adjective

Origin:

Old English hām, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch heem and German Heim

Note that the phrasal verb meaning ‘move accurately toward a target’ is home in on, not hone in on. More than a third of citations for this expression in the Oxford English Corpus are for the incorrect form.

home in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of home in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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