house

noun

• 1a building for human habitation, especially one that consists of a ground floor and one or more upper storeys: a house of Cotswold stone [as modifier]:house prices
• the people living in a house; a household:make yourself scarce before you wake the whole house
• a noble, royal, or wealthy family or lineage; a dynasty:the power and prestige of the House of Stewart
• chiefly Scottish a dwelling that is one of several in a building.
• [with modifier] a building in which animals live or in which things are kept:a hen house

• 2a building in which people meet for a particular activity:a house of prayer
• a firm or institution:a fashion house
• (the House) British informal the Stock Exchange.
• a restaurant or inn:help yourself to a drink, compliments of the house! [as modifier]:a carafe of house wine
• dated a brothel.
• a theatre:a hundred musicians performed in front of a full house
• British a performance in a theatre or cinema:tickets for the first house

• 3a religious community that occupies a particular building:the Cistercian house at Clairvaux
• a residential building for pupils at a boarding school: a house of 45 boarders [as modifier]:a house prefect
• British each of a number of groups into which pupils at a day school are divided for games or competition.
• British formal a college of a university.

• 4a legislative or deliberative assembly:the sixty-member National Council, the country’s upper house
• (the House) (in the UK) the House of Commons or Lords; (in the US) the House of Representatives: the government commanded an overall majority in the House
• used in formal debates that mimic the procedures of a legislative assembly:a debate on the motion ‘This house would legalize cannabis’

• 5 (also house music) [mass noun] a style of electronic dance music typically having sparse, repetitive vocals and a fast beat: DJs specializing in techno, garage, and house

• 6 Astrology a twelfth division of the celestial sphere, based on the positions of the ascendant and midheaven at a given time and place, and determined by any of a number of methods.
• a twelfth division of the celestial sphere represented as a sector on an astrological chart, used in allocating elements of character and circumstance to different spheres of human life.

• 7 [mass noun] Britishold-fashioned term for bingo.
• [as exclamation] used by a bingo player to announce that they have won.

adjective

• 1(of an animal or plant) kept in, frequenting, or infesting buildings.

• 2relating to a firm, institution, or society:a house journal
• (of a band or group) resident or regularly performing in a club or other venue: the house band

verb

• 1provide with shelter or accommodation:they converted a disused cinema to house twelve employees

• 2provide space for; contain or accommodate:the museum houses a collection of Roman sculpture
• fix (something) in a socket or mortise.