House. n.s. [hus, Saxon; huys, Dutch; huse, Scottish.]

1. A place wherein a man lives; a place of human abode.

   Sparrows must not build in his house eaves. Shakespeare.

   Houses are built to live in, not to look on; therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Bacon, Essay 46.

   In a house the doors are moveable, and the rooms square; yet the house is neither moveable nor square. Watts.

2. Any place of abode.

   The bees with smoke, the doves with noisome stench,
   Are from their hives and houses driven away. Shakespeare.

3. Place in which religious or studious persons live in common; monastery; college.

   Theodosius arrived at a religious house in the city, where now Constantia resided. Addison's Spectator.

4. The manner of living; the table.

   He kept a miserable house, but the blame was laid wholly upon madam. Swift.

5. Station of a planet in the heavens, astrologically considered.

   Pure spiritual substances we cannot converse with, therefore have need of means of communication, which some make to be the celestial houses: those who are for the celestial houses worship the planets, as the habitations of intellectual substances that animate them. Stillingfleet.

6. Family of ancestors, descendants, and kindred; race.

   The red rose and the white are on his face,
   The fatal colours of our striving houses. Shakes. Henry VI.

   An ignominious ransom and free pardon
   Are of two houses; lawful mercy sure
   Is nothing kin to soul redemption. Shak. Meas. for Measure.

   By delaying my last fine, upon your grace's accession to the patrimonies of your house, I may seem to have made a forfeiture. Dryden's Fables, Dedication.

   A poet is not born in ev'ry race;
   Two of a house few ages can afford,
   One to perform, another to record. Dryden's Fables.

7. A body of parliament; the lords or commons collectively considered.

   Nor were the crimes objected against him so clear, as to give convincing satisfaction to the major part of both houses, especially that of the lords. King Charles.