house n.1
1. a whore-house, a house of ill-repute, a brothel.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | ‘To the Quene’ in Mackenzie Poems (1932) 60: I saw coclinkis [prostitute] me besyd The young men to thair howses gyd [...] Some fra the bordell wald nocht byd, Quhill that thai gatt the Spanyie pockis. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Disputation Betweene a Hee and a Shee Conny-Catcher (1923) 72: I remoued my lodging, and gat mee into one of those houses of good hospitalitie whereunto persons resort, commonly called a Trugging house, or to be plaine, a whore house. | |
| Measure for Measure II i: A bad woman, whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too. | |
| Chances IV iii: ’Tis so; that House, Sir. | |
| Covent-Garden Weeded III i: cock: I am one that has the favour of the house sir. nick: To intrude into Gentlemens privacies? ha! | |
 | Parliament of Ladies 4: The Ladyes […] being as you heard, at their house in Spring Garden. | |
| New Brawle 9: Not a Lansprisado nor a Tarpawling that furrowed over the rugged botom [sic] of Neptune, but paid Custome to my House. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Eng. Rogue I 134: I had not been long in her house, before a roaring Damme entred the house. | |
| Whores Dialogue 7: Were it not for his [i.e. a civet-cat’s] sir reverence, I should have such a strong savor, that I suppose a Cobler would disdain to kiss me, much less such vaporing blades as come to our house with their faces muffled. | |
| ‘Letter from a Missionary Bawd’ in Carpenter Verse in English from Tudor & Stuart Eng. (2003) 427: McDonnels house does hinder much my trade [i.e. as a bawd] , / For all the Irish draps do there parade. | |
| Nugae Venales 255: She would put on her own Femal Habit, and sitting in the House as a customary plyer, the Daughter [...] did play Bawd for the Mother, so long till they were apprehended for keeping a disorderly House. | |
| Chances IV i: The Woman of the House too. | |
| ‘Upon the Pyramid’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy II 4: No sooner the City had lost their old Houses, / But they set up this Monument [...] And yet these Men can’t / In their conscience but grant, / That a House is unworthy compar’d to a Saint. | |
| ‘The Female Scuffle’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 212: I’ll have half says the Baud, but you shan’t says the Whore: / Why, ’tis my House, / I care not a Louse. | |
| Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers 6: Now let us see what are the methods taken to suppress those disorderly Houses. | |
| Select Trials at Old Bailey (1742) III 37: Margaret Clap was indicted for keeping a disorderly House, in which she procured and encouraged Persons to commit Sodomy, December 10, 1725, and before and after. | |
| Narrative of Street-Robberies 33: Susan Haws and Dalton went to another House in the Hay Market, where Sukey call’d the Landlord Aunt Mug, alias Belzebub; but Dalton perceiving that this was likewise an House that harbour’d Mollies [...] would not stay. | |
| Hist. of Highwaymen &c 352: The Cock-Bawd of the House and his Wife [...] resolved to make a further prey of him. | |
| Thief-Catcher 10: Desperado Bullies keep large Houses and pay considerable Rent. | |
| Nancy Dawson’s Jests 11: Why! Betty! cries she [i.e. a bawd], no body to fetch the girls to the gentlemen, oh! my God , what will become of this house when I am in the bosom of my sweet saviour. | |
| ‘Miss Walker’ in Ranger’s Impartial List of the Ladies of Pleasure in Edinburgh n.p.: This Lady keeps a very genteel house. | |
| Nocturnal Revels I 15: She [i.e. a bawd] generally had some of the best Pieces in the Garden at her house. | |
| Correct List of the Sporting Ladies [broadsheet] Her stay will be but short here, as she is under an engagement to one of the principal houses in Bridge-street, Covent-Garden. | |
| Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 32: A certain Sergeant, who was long a house keeper, beating up for recruits, she inlisted under him and is now in his service. | |
| Memoirs (1995) III 146: She now moves in a much higher sphere, keeping an excellent house. | |
| Sporting Mag. Nov. XVII 84/2: He mentioned the Play-houses, amongst certain other houses, as the scene of his amusements. | |
| N.Y. Police Dept. Jan. [public notice] The Landlords, Tenants, and Occupiers of all houses of ill fame [...] are hereby notified, that all houses of the above description, found west of Rutgers-street, from and after the first day of May, will become the particular objects of the viligance [sic] of the Police, until they are suppressed. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 7 Nov. 326/1: They [i.e. two ‘nymphs of the Piazza’] [...] enticed him into one of the notorious ‘houses’ — as such places are called by those who do not like to call things by their right names. | |
| Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 195: If you persist in following that bunter and enter that infamous house, I will stop you. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 29 n.p.: A house of rather doubtful character. | |
| Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 149: Mother Thompson, who keeps a bad house in the rookery. | |
| Wkly Rake (NY) 18 June n.p.: the rake advises [...] The man who called last Tuesday at a certain house in Church street [...] bearing a letter [...] to one of its inmates [etc] . | |
| New Swell’s Night Guide to the Bowers of Venus frontispiece: Introducing Houses, West-End ‘Walks,’ Chanting Slums, Flash Cribs, and Dossing Kens. | |
| Peeping Tom (London) 10 38/1: The boarders of these houses are obliged to [...] decoy any straggling young man who may reel in from the tavern. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 14 Mar. 3/2: He told him to keep an eye on witness and his friend, saying that ‘one of thom (witness) is a b— house keeper, and served six months for it’. | |
| Detroit Trib. 6 Oct. 3/1: Efforts have time and again been made by the police force to break up the house so as to rid society of the nuisance [DA]. | |
| Phoebe Kissagen 33: Now you are in a house full of some of the finest young women in London, who I can assure you are entirely at your command, free of any charge. | |
| Nether Side of N.Y. 143: These are houses a shade more sufferable [...] and are filled with women who do not shock at the first glance. | |
| London Life 7/1: [S]he entered a house in Pimlico, where the proprietress clothed and sent out women to fascinate and bring home gentlemen, taking care though to secure the greater part, if not all, the money they received. | |
| Fort Worth Democrat-Advance 27 Jan. in Why the West was Wild 453: ‘Mysterious Dave’ [...] charged with stealing a gold chain and ring belonging to Georgia Morgan, a copper-colored coon who is proprietress of the famous ‘Long Branch’ house of Dallas. | |
| My Secret Life (1966) VI 1200: A well know traveller is said to have got his wife from one of the houses at this town, and a charming wife and woman she has ever since been. | |
| Und. Sewer 27: During the time I resided in Lincoln the number of ‘houses’ ranged from a half dozen to a dozen, of different grades. | |
| Commercialized Prostitution in N.Y. City 95: My wife got sixty days for running this house the other day. | |
| Truth (Melbourne) 3 Jan. 2/4: Charming Vivienne (she’s a Frenchie from an East Melbourne ’ouse). | |
| Western Mail 2 Aug. 2/6: It was alleged that the defendant kept a certain type of house under the cloak of doing the soldiers’ washing. | |
| Bastard (1963) 32: She’s the best girl in the house. | |
| Limey 187: Once a girl got into one of Marco’s houses she was done for. | |
| ‘Depend on Aunt Elly’ in Texas Stories (1995) 96: It’s what I get for playin’ the streets [...] I’d be better off in a house. | |
| Wives & Lovers (2016) 155: ‘The old biddy [...] told me [...] that she didn’t keep a house and that she wasn’t a madam’. | |
| (con. 1890s) Tenderloin 170: Strange happenings were, indeed, of frequent occurence in the houses of the Tenderloin. | |
| Gay Detective (2003) 61: We had to close up all those quiet, friendly, well-regulated houses. | |
| in Heller In This Corner (1974) 41: The second wife was a bum right out of a house. | |
| (con. 1972) Times Square 126: ‘These broads are shit,’ he whispered. ‘Ya want conversation or cunt? [...] This ain’t a hundred-dollar house.’. | |
| (con. late 19C) Shady Ladies of the Old West 🌐 The women who lived in ‘good houses’ considered themselves the cream of the crop, and scorned those who worked in (or out of) saloons, dance halls, and theaters. | |
| (con. 1972) What It Was 202: She goes by Coco. Runs a house right here on Fourteenth. |
2. a public house, a hotel, an illegal drinking house.
| The Belman of London H4: They seek out some blind victualling house [...] whose Host (if it be possible) is either an asse easie to be ridden, or else a common drunkard. | |
| Faire Maid of the West Pt I I i: capt.: Come to the Castle then. Goodl.: What, to the old house still? | |
| Woman Turn’d Bully V i: I left him just now drinking a Glass at the Cock-ale-house. | |
| In Praise of York-shire Ale 7: A brave full house, Bachus himselfe was there. | |
| Regulator 21: Henry Andrewson [...] keeps a Case, and all the Traders in general use his House, he is an Old Thief. | |
| Distilled Liquors the Bane of the Nation in Papers of Francis Place (1825) vii: When a justice of the peace sets about a reformation of the unlicensed houses, he finds himself surrounded with numbers of perrtyfogging attorneys. | |
| Discoveries (1774) 4: I took a House in Porter’s-Row [...] I gave thirteen Pounds a Year, and had good Custom, and drew five Barrels of Ale one Week with another. | |
| A Treatise upon Publicans 14: These and such like are the scenes in these houses. | |
| Adventures of a Speculist I 259: There was a house in Charles-street, called the Field of Blood, where the droll fellows used nightly to resort. | |
| Spirit of Irish Wit 116: ‘What’s become of the £10,000 you received at your father’s death?’ ‘I laid it all out in houses [...] All snug taverns and gaming houses, in Dublin’. | |
| ‘Humours of Glasgow Fair’ in Glasgow Poets (1906) 207: Then, for a house they gaed glowring, / Whar they might get wetting their mou’. | |
| New Swell’s Night Guide to the Bowers of Venus 36: King’s Arms Borough. A house that has been often indicted. | |
| Golden Butterfly I 97: There are ‘houses’ handy into which they can slouch from time to time for a drink. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Oct. 14/2: To the ‘house’ that is nearest and handy / We slink from the city’s dull din, / And bathe their brains and our brains in brandy, / Or soak them in soda-and-gin. | |
| Orange Girl I 237: Well, sir, you see us here, as we are, as orderly and peaceful a house as your Worship would desire. | |
| Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 409: A house called ‘The Three Loggerheads’. | |
| Limehouse Nights 62: I don’t mind you coming to my ’ouse and getting drunk. | |
| Living Rough 170: The place smelled of tobacco smoke and beer. The house wasn’t very busy. | |
| The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing 92: He was a bootlegger, always running a house everywhere he go. |
3. a poor-house, a workhouse; a tramps’ lodging house.
| Paved with Gold 33: The workhouse of ‘St. Lazarus Without.’ ‘The House’ – as all the poor in the neighbourhood called it. | |
| Pauper, Thief and Convict 13: People [...] will endure almost anything rather than ‘go into the house,’ that is, than become Union paupers. | |
| Wilds of London (1881) 63: ‘But why doesn’t she go to the workhouse?’ [...] ‘Go to the house yourself! I shan’t go to the house. I won’t go.’. | |
| Jottings from Jail 212: Anyone who knows the effect a hard winter must have on the labouring classes [...] will know that at such times hundreds will perforce accept the shelter of the ‘house’. | |
| Child of the Jago (1982) 162: An’ if you ’appen to go in the ’ouse — he meant the workhouse — well, it can’t be ’elped. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. | |
| Stiffs 108: A proportion of the inhabitants of the House consisted of casual lodgers. |
4. (UK society) a group of guests at a ball or dance who sit, eat and dance within their own circle only.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
5. (US Und.) a police station.
| Prisoner at the Bar 106: ‘Well, the first thing you’ll do,’ remarks the officer, ‘’ll be to walk to the house. Come on, now!’ And forthwith he drags Maria to the door. | |
| in Comments on Ety. (1996) Apr. 2: You can [...] lead them around to the ‘house’ and they’ll never beef. | |
| Hooch! 10: ‘Crabo won’t click in this house,’ Flenger sneered. ‘This is a police station. Things happen around here.’. | |
| On the Pad 202: If a guy comes at me to hurt me, then [...] I’ll beat him within an inch of his life. But once he’s under arrest and he’s in the house, it’s all over. | |
| Lush Life 142: We need for you to come down to the house, help us try to ID these guys . | |
| The Force [ebook] ‘“Oh, God, did she OD?’ ‘No,’ Malone says. ‘If she had, you’d have never made it to the house’. | |
| ‘Sunset’ in Broken 178: They didn’t take him to the house [...] but to his girlfriend’s place. |
6. (US Und.) a single prison cell, occas. a dormitory; thus house time, a sentence in jail.
| ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 133: house, n. Cell. | |
| Street Players 124: If there were no fines...all of them would be facing house time. | |
| Death Row xvii: My house means my cell. | |
| Prison Sl. 7: House An inmate’s prison cell [...] An inmate’s house is his living area where his bed and personal property are kept. (Archaic: den, pad). | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 32: gouse n. Cell. | |
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 91/1: house n. a cell. | |
| You Got Nothing Coming 45: I don’t put up with no child molesters in my house, know what I’m sayin’? Back in the pen in Kansas we threw the fucking Chomos off the top tier, y’unnerstan’? | |
| Pain Killers 100: He suddenly lunged forward in his chains [...] ‘You’re in my house, old man!’. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 36: The COs whacked the bars of your house to enforce lights-out. | |
| Riker’s 27: [of a prison dormitory] [O]ne part of fifty things they have to do to get [you to] your house. |
7. (US black/teen) a prison.
| ‘Look Me in the Eye, Boy!’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 158: They got you booked, mugged, printed [...] then they stacked you away in the House. | |
| Burn, Killer, Burn! 199: Their decision to leave him in the house as a lesson. | |
| Underground Dict. (1972). | |
| ‘Strange Bedfellows’ Oz ser. 2 ep. 6 [TV script] I just talked to the Family. You’re out. Somebody else is going to be taking over operations here in the house. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 22: Most likely Murder warned him not to make the house hot by going to the clinic. | |
| Riker’s 85: There was this young gang member, and he was trying to act like he ran the whole house. |
In compounds
1. (US Und.) a prostitute who works in a brothel.
| (con. 1940s) Sowers of the Wind 37: ‘And, of course, house-girls.’ ‘And grog, too.’. | |
| Cast the First Stone 12: After the call girls come the house-girls [...] House prices begin at seven dollars for five or ten minutes. |
2. in burlesque, a regular performer in a burlesque or strip club, as distinguished from a featured performer who is hired for a limited time.
| Same Old Grind 44: ‘That’s the feature. We don’t let them drink in here. Only the house girls. We don’t make enough in drinks off the features to take all that ego crap’. |
3. (US black) a respectable girl [she is based in the house rather than the street].
| Them (2008) 15: She a house girl. She ain’t never had no real trash like me. |
(US Und.) a madame.
| Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 80: Her character too, as a housekeeper, has been always decent, and she has had the address to prevent – ‘any knock-me-down doings in her house’. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(N.Z. prison) a pill of halcion.
| ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 32: house m or housie n. Halcyon pill. | |
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 91/1: house m n. a halcyon pill (usually small, blue and football-shaped). |
in the sex industry, a madame.
| et al. DAUL 104/1: House mother. The proprietress of a house of prostitution. | |
| Gloss. in Study of a Women’s Prison 205: House Mother. The madam of a house of prostitution. | |
| (ref. to late 1950s) Queens’ Vernacular 112: During the late ’50s [...] He-madames, house mothers (camp) and misters ran male-order houses. | |
| Maledicta IX 150: The original argot of prostitution includes some words and phrases which have gained wider currency and some which have not […] house mother (madame). |
(US) a second-rate brothel.
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 25 Oct. n.p.: Why don’t the police break up that low ‘street house’ kept by Miss Frank Allen. | |
| N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 18 Aug. 5/2: Ada Burns and Mike Agin have opened a street house. |
In phrases
very angry.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: He is up in the Boughs, or a top of the House, said of one upon the Rant, or in a great Ferment. | |
| Oxford Jests 1: Good lord, says he, one cannot speak a word, but you are a top o’ th’ House presently. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
see under dead adj.
to exhibit sudden intense violence, to ‘go wild’.
| Gone, Baby, Gone 197: Over a hundred spent shells had been found in the trees and ledges directly behind Broussard’s cliff [...] ‘Looks like the shooters went house back here’. |
(US prison) to search a cell.
| Prison Sl. 98: Occasionally, prison guards will conduct random searches or shakedowns of inmates’ cells or living areas looking for weapons, drugs or other contraband. This type of search is referred to as hitting your house. |
a brothel.
| Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) I v: As to a house of civil entertainment, Sir John; here is one hard by, where knights and lords, and all the great gentlemen of the court, are entertained, both night and by day [...] A house of civil entertainment, a bawdy-house truly! | |
| Nancy Dawson’s Jests 11: Mother Brown, keeping a house of civil reception in Ireland, a girl went into a private room with the late lord Thomond. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
a brothel, a house of assignation.
| London-Bawd (1705) 103: The house which I now keep, is a house of Convenience for Gentlemen and Ladies; and goes under several Denominations: Some calls it The School of Venus; others a Vaulting School; others the Assignation-house; And some that are my Enemies, bestow upon it the Title of a Bawdy-house. | |
| Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 88: Keeping a house of conveniency, there were no lengths in lewdness she would not advise me to go in compliance with her customers. | |
| Flash Mirror 5: The Crown Coffee House, Drury Lane, [is] a house of convenience, continually open. |
(US) the Women’s House of Detention, NYC.
| S.R.O. (1998) 50: ‘I can see you’ve got that damned monkey off your back. How’d you do it?’ ‘House of D’. |
a brothel.
| Whores Dialogue 5: We were Ladies of Pleasure, so we had a very pleasurable house, Gardens of pleasure, Arbors of pleasure, hang’d Rooms of pleasure, and beds of pleasures, where Gentlemen for their Money had their pleasure with us. | |
| Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1707–8) (1760) II 264: Thus plaguing and pillaging of all our known houses of delight, has been a great discouragement to young ladies from tendring their services at such places. | |
| ‘The Town-Rakes’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 108: He [...] All houses of Pleasure, breaks Windows and Doors, / Kicks Bullies and Cullies, then lies with their Whores. | |
| Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 175: She took a fine Lodging at a house of Entertainment. | |
| Trial of Elizabeth Canning in Howell State Trials (1816) 327: [T]here was another room she heard a noise in of nights, but that it was very quiet of days, being a house of entertainment in the night. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 6 Feb. 6/3: The fat and ancient Madame of a house of joy. |
a brothel.
| Measure for Measure IV iii: I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession: one would think it were Mistress Overdone’s own house, for here be many of her old customers. |
a brothel.
| Measure for Measure I ii: Shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down? | |
| Living Picture of London 162: To penetrate the back slum of a ‘house of resort’. |
a brothel.
| Hamlet II i: I saw him enter such a house of sale. |
a brothel.
| Eng. Rogue I 381: Is that a Brothel, or an House of State [...] This was a stately house, and yet was such; In stately houses Ladies take a touch. |
a tavern.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: House of waste; a tavern or alehouse, where idle people waste both their time and money. |
| Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
1. (US black) at home.
| Vulture (1996) 53: The gang would be on Ninth [...] most of the younger cats and chicks would be in the house. |
2. lit., present and fig., aware, ‘on the ball’ etc.
| [ | | Van Loan ‘The Pearl Brooch’ in Taking the Count 259: Many friends of Oscar’s victims were in the house]. |
| ‘Fuck Wit Dre Day’ 🎵 Bow wow wow yippy yo yippy yay / Doggy Dogg’s in the motherfuckin house. | |
| Chicken (2003) 144: Hooooooo-ie, Sunny is in de house! | |
| ‘Dead Soldiers’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 3 [TV script] Uh-oh. Downtown in the house. |
3. (orig. US black/teen) excellent.
| et al. A2Z 53/2: in the house – the place to be; successful or happening. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 158: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Word is bond. Bring it on. In the house. Fight the power. |
1. (US) to cohabit.
| Forty Modern Fables 191: A few Flocks of these Organisms moved into a Gentleman and began to Play House and Nibble around. | |
| ‘Spanish Blood’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 16: He’s been playing house with a night club number called Stella La Motte. | |
| [song title] Baby Let’s Play House . | |
| Black Mass 83: Flemmi showered her with clothes, jewelry, even a car, and the two began to play house. |
2. (US campus) to have sexual intercourse.
| ‘Investigator Reports, 1927–1929’ Committee of Fourteen Papers 45: She wanted to get started, ‘to play house,’ and led him into the bedroom. | |
| ‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in Tijuana Bibles (1997) 97: A scrumptious layout where he can run in whenever he feels like playing house and put on a blanket party. | |
| Where the Boys Are 34: We played house. That is the current euphemism. | |
| Affairs of Gidget 73: I was spastically happy to be with Jeff [...] to play house within the confines of our old meeting ground, the snug Volkswagon. | |
| Brother Ray 157: I was the last one to discover that he and Pat were keeping house. |
3. to insult one’s peers with ref. to their mother.
| ‘Gang Delinquency’ in Short Gang Delinquency and Delinquent Subcultures (1968) 142: The highly ritualized type of mutual insult interchange known as ‘the dirty dozens,’ ‘the dozens,’ ‘playing house’. |
4. of two homosexuals, to play around in a sexual manner.
| Mr Madam (1967) 42: Peter and I decided to play house – I was always the mother. |
SE in slang uses
Pertaining to a lavatory
In phrases
1. a brothel, or a whore’s vagina .
| Belle’s Stratagem 13: Mrs Racket: Here’s to every upright member that enters the House of Commons! [...] Courtall: With all my heart, Bet — And to every upright member who enters houses that are not common. |
2. a privy, a lavatory.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn). | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. |
a privy.
| Chaste Maid in Cheapside V i: Is’t not a place for easement? | |
| Hollander I i: Is it not in plaine termes, a house of ease. | |
| Kind Keeper V i: I shall civilly desire you henceforth not to make a Chappel of Ease of Pug’s Closet. | |
| Art of Meditating over an House of Office cover: Proposals at large for establishing a corporation for erecting 500 publick offices of ease. | |
| Meditations Upon an House-of-Office 26: I then fell into a Philosophical Argument with myself, to explore the Reason, why these Houses of Ease are always so productive of Poetry. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
a privy.
| Father Hubburd’s Tales line 395: His back part seemed to us like a monster, the roll of the breeches standing so low that we conjectured his house of office, sir-reverence, stood in his hams. | |
| May-Day IV ii: This is a hard case; no room serve your turn but my wife’s coal-house, and her other house of office annexed to it, a privy place for herself. | |
| ‘World runnes on Wheeles’ in Works (1869) II 242: A backe-part of a house of office may be framed (as you may for euery where on the bank-side). | |
| Parliament of Women C: Mistris Dorothy Do-little, said my goodman came home drunk the other day, and [...] he hid himselfe in the house of Office, and their began to ease his stomacke. | |
| in Choyce Drollery (1876) 33: [title] Upon a House of Office over a River, set on fire by a coale of tobacco. | |
| ‘Upon Alderman Atkins’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 137: He made a House of Office of his Hose? / Stand further off, if it offend your Nose. | |
| Wandring Whores Complaint 4: The other night I met with a Carrot-pated Cull [...] he pretended to go to the house ex officio. | |
| Nugae Venales 213: One going to a House of Office, fie upon’t, said he, there is an odiferous House indeed. | |
| Teagueland Jests I 37: I did fling de resht [of the coins] in de Houshe-of-Offishe. | |
| London Spy IV 84: Every Body was glad to escape his Fury, by keeping at a distance; none came within [...] the Scent of his Breath, which you may be sure stunk as bad as a House-of-Office. | |
| A great & famous scoldling-match 3: Had he not just before been emptying of a House of Office, you had certainly strangled him with your unsavoury Breath. | |
| Priest-Craft II 48: There is no better place for his nasty Guts [...] then in the Jaques, the Bog-house or House of Office. | |
| York Spy 11: An old gambling Cock loft, which stunk as bad as [...] an House of Office when the Gold-finders are emptying it. | |
| Polly Peachum's Jests 8: You are built directly contrary to Act of Parliament, you are but two Stories high, and your Belcony [sic] hangs over your House-of-Office. | |
| Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 170: Her Mistriss [...] convey’d it away, and cast it into the House of Office. | |
| Proceedings Old Bailey 13 Apr. 149/1: An House-of-Office, belonging to the Dwelling-House of Luke Philpot, where there was a great Quantity of Filth and Excrement. | |
| ‘On Mris. F-----n’ Poems (1752) 83: So to a House of Office streight / A School-Boy does repair, / To ease his Postern of its Weight, / And fr-- his P---- there. | |
| The Tricks of the Town Laid Open (4 edn) 60: Let them [...] try, whether a Horse-pond, or a House of Office, will work any thing towards their Reformation. | |
| Covent Garden Jester (2nd edn) 7: Mr. Pitt [...] protested he would never again live in a house of office. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn). |
(UK/N.Z.) a lavatory, esp. a public lavatory.
| Cut and Run (1963) 14: Ben and I went to the ‘Houses of Parliament’. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. |
General uses
In compounds
(W.I.) utterly, completely.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | cited in Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980). |
(US) a small child.
| JC Saves (1979) 127: A bunch a blue-eyed spade house apes inta the bargain. | |
| Requiem for a Dream (1987) 15: The goddamn house apes yelling and fightin about whose piece of meat is bigger and...whats for dessert. | |
| Slang! 220: House ape. Small child. | |
| posting 5 Feb. on ‘Wordorigins Org’ on Ezboard 🌐 ‘Rugrat’ appears in 1970. It’s US in origin. ‘Rug-ape’ is from 1967 and ‘ankle-biter’ from 1963. ‘House-ape’ is another term. |
see under bit n.1
see under connection n.
(US tramp) one who takes jobs in private houses.
| Milk and Honey Route 208: House dog—A fellow who goes about hunting jobs, cleaning windows, beating carpets, etc. |
(UK Und.) a kept mistress.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. |
(drugs) a fee charged for entry into a room or apartment where one can smoke crack cocaine.
| Crackhouse 149: house fee money paid to enter a crackhouse. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 12: House fee — Money paid to enter a crackhouse. |
see under hop n.1
a landlord who rents third-rate accommodation to the poor.
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 478/1: House-farmers, house-knackers (popular), a variety of the ‘sweater’ tribe. Persons who let bad lodgings at a high rent to the poor. |
1. (US) a burglar.
| Life In Sing Sing 255: Houseman. A burglar. | |
| Enemy to Society 147: Say a ‘house man’ or a ‘sneak’ or a ‘second-story’ man or a ‘peteman’ — anything but ‘cracksman’. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 408: Houseman. Burglar, prowler. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
2. the house representative in a gambling game.
| Deep Down in the Jungle 142: The giraffe was the houseman [i.e. in a pool game]. You know naturally he had a stake. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 1: ‘Head crack,’ Houseman yelled [...] he went round the table to collect money from the bettors . |
3. (US) one who favours their employer’s viewpoint over the public.
| Jocks 82: A house man is one who blindly and obediently expresses what he hopes is management’s point of view. |
(US) one who stays at home, or in a single environment.
| The 3-0 192: He was technically a house mouse, which meant he stayed inside, always doing administrative work [etc]. |
see under piece n.
(US) an indolent person who does nothing but sit around.
| in in Ferrell Dear Bess (1983) 227: We are all as happy as can be expected for a bunch of house plants. | |
| Sl. U. |
(Aus.) a rat.
| N. Queensland Register (Townsville, Qld) 9 Nov. 7/4: Rats! Rats! Rats! cried the love-making couple [...] The young man in another moment was lashing into those house rabbits with a forty foot pole. |
(US) a child.
| Last Exit to Brooklyn 262: Ah, it was great, real great man to just sit and [...] not have those ghuddam houserats arunnin all ovuhya. |
(US Und.) burglary; thus house-worker, a burglar.
| Wretches of Povertyville 206: When engaged in ‘housework’ (burglary) or ‘till tapping’ (robbing money drawers) a pal or companion is necessary and plans must be made in advance. [...] The ‘house worker’ [...] will go through a house pretending to be the directory man or a peddler of gas tips or some other small article [...] If he finds a door open and no one in the room he will take whatever he can lay his hands on. | |
| It’s a Racket! 229: HOUSEWORK–Burglary; robbery done indoors. |
In phrases
see under dark adj.
a widow.
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 451: House for rent, A widow. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 105: House for Rent.–A widow. |
1. a bar that sells grilled food as well as the usual liquor.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
2. the House of Detention.
| et al. A2Z. |
(US prison) a house of detention; spec. the Women’s House of Detention in NYC.
| Panic in Needle Park (1971) 168: She’s in the House of D right now, so what can he do? | |
| in Hellhole 44: The House of D. was never meant to be a rest home. | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970). |
(US black) a hotel.
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 6 Aug. 11/1: After staching in this burg, St Louis, and mitting my personals in the house of many nods, I was cutting down the midway brought to my deuce of benders because ole sol was tipping his mitt on a deuce of sides of the midway. |
(US) a prison.
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 8 Feb. 7/1: The law [...] lowered the boom on him [...] in the domicile of many slammers until he gummed. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 29 Mar. 13: The cat I dug laying his spiel in the House of Many Slammers. | |
| ‘Back Door Stuff’ 6 Nov. [synd. col.] Chicks and playboys who have had a change of heart following terms of incarceration in the House of Many Slammers. | |
| Book of Negro Folklore 477: Jail – House of Many Slammers. | |
| Burn, Killer, Burn! 199: If that house of many slammers is anything like de one you pulled me from [etc.]. | |
| [title] House of Slammers. | |
| Homeboy 34: Joe wished him a oneway ticket to the House of Many Slammers. |
see under noodle n.1
1. the dentist’s.
| Jive and Sl. |
2. a prison.
| et al. A2Z. |
1. a prison [the generic hangman Jack Ketch].
| Londinismen (2nd edn). | |
| Limey 243: The magnificant Hall of Justice was commonly known in Los Angeles at the time as ‘the House that Jack Built.’ A big contractor whose name I forget, but whose first name was Jack, had grafted the contract [...] The jail was built to accommodate 1,200 prisoners. | |
| (ref. to 1920s) Over the Wall 53: As we approached the tower that marked the entrance to Jack’s house, a head appeared at a high window. |
2. (Aus.) the Government Savings Bank in Sydney, opened 1928.
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. |
the vagina.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 185: The anatomical relationship of the bower of bliss and its main channel is indicated in such phrases as […] hoop, leading article, dead end street and house under the hill. |
(US prison) the gas chamber.
| Third Degree (1931) 31: The gang chieftains are not chancing ‘a long ride to the Big House or a trip to the House with the Green Shutters’. |
(US black) a temporarily unfurnished apartment or house; usu. as used for parties.
| N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 17 May 11: [W]hat the chippies, the chicks , the hens and the harpies did [...] in the House Without Chairs Where the Lights Are Blue. | |
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 64: I just came out from the House Without Chairs Where the Lights are a Solid Blue. |
to make a great deal of noise or disturbance in one’s house.
| Bk of Simples fol. 28: What a sweete heauen is this? Haue at all, kockes woundes, blood and nayles, caste the house out at the window, and let the Diuell pay the Malte man. | |
| ‘A Proper New Ballad on the New Parliament’ in Political Ballads 146: If we take them there any more, wee’l throw the house out of the window. | |
| Moliere I 180: I’ll have a virtuous wife, or I’ll throw the house out o’ th’ window. | |
| ‘Mrs Joseph Porter’ in Slater Dickens’ Journalism I (1994) 405: The whole family was infected with the mania for Private Theatricals; the house, usually so clean and tidy, was, to use Mr. Gattleton’s expressive description, ‘regularly turned out o’ windows’. | |
| Gloss. Manley, Lincs. 563: To throw the house out of the windows, To make a great noise, disturbance, or tumult in a house. |