Dictionary

houseroom en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈhaʊsɹuːm/ (UK)

Etymology

From house + room.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) Room or place in a house.
   • ‘But go thy waies to him, and fro me say, / That here is at his gate an errant Knight, / That house-room craves […].’ 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
   • After much inquiry I determined to visit the district of Maros, about thirty miles north of Macassar, where Mr. Jacob Mesman, a brother of my friend, resided, who had kindly offered to find me house-room and give me assistance should I feel inclined to visit him. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 358:
   • And, Mr. Farfrae, as you provide so much, and houseroom, and all that, I’ll do my part in the drinkables, and see to the rum and schiedam—maybe a dozen jars will be sufficient? 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 43, in The Mayor of Casterbridge:
   • […] it would make a man mad of our profession, especially to be buz’d in the Ears with your Honesty or Plain-dealing, as if you were turned their Advocate, and went about to perswade us to give them House room. 1685, John Dunton, An Hue and Cry after Conscience, London, page 56:
   • 1786, Frederick Pilon, He Would Be a Soldier, London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, Act III, p. 38, […] she has more old figures than is worth house room.
2. (countable) A room dedicated for the use of a particular house at a boarding school.

Forms