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A female host; a woman who hospitably entertains guests at her house. Shak.

Inhospitable. [Obs.] "A hostless house." Spenser.

A hostelry; an inn or lodging house. [Obs.] Marlowe.

A house for entertaining strangers or travelers; an inn or public house, of the better class.

A city hall or townhouse.

A fee for keeping goods in a house. [R.] Chambers.

That which shelters or covers; houses, taken collectively. Fabyan.

A poor cottage; a small, mean house; a hut.

The male head of a household; one who orders the economy of a family. [Obs.]

A housewife or housekeeper. [Obs.]

A female housekeeper; a woman who manages domestic affairs; a thirfty woman. "The bounteous huswife Nature." Shak. The huswife is she that do labor doth fall. Tusser.

The business of a housewife; female domestic economy and skill. Tusser.

A small house, hivel, or cabin; a mean lodge or dwelling; a slightly built or temporary structure. Death comes on with equal footsteps To the hall and hut. Bp. Coxe.

That department of sanitary science which treats of the preservation of health, esp. of households and communities; a system of principles or rules designated for the promotion of health.

d to rooms above. This contrivance, first used in bath, was afterwards adopted in private houses.

field, but smaller. -- Ice foot, shore ice in Arctic regions; an ice belt. Kane. -- Ice house, a close-covered pit or building for storing ice. -- Ice machine (Physics), a machine for making ice artificially, as by the production of a low temperature through the sudden expansion of a gas or vapor, or the rapid evapo…

cal, mass of ice, formed by freezing of dripping water; as, the icicles on the eaves of a house.

An Eskimo snow house.

-- Ill breeding, want of good breeding; rudeness. -- Ill fame, ill or bad repute; as, a house of ill fame, a house where lewd persons meet for illicit intercourse. -- Ill humor, a disagreeable mood; bad temper. -- Ill nature, bad disposition or temperament; sullenness; esp., a disposition to cause unhappiness to ot…

Festive decoration of houses or buildings with lights.