house noun

1 building that is made for one family to live in

ADJ. beautiful, comfortable, delightful, elegant, fine, grand, handsome, lovely, luxurious, magnificent, posh, pretty, splendid | dream They built their own dream house overlooking the river. | depressing, dingy, gloomy, ugly | derelict, dilapidated, ramshackle, shabby, untidy | detached, semi-detached, terrace/terraced | big, enormous, gigantic, huge, large, palatial, spacious | rambling It was easy to get lost in the rambling house. | little, modest, small, tiny They lived in a modest semi-detached house in the suburbs. | single-storey, single-storeyed, two-storey, etc. | four-bedroom, four-bedroomed, eight-room, eight-roomed, etc. | gabled, half-timbered, red-brick, thatched | exclusive, expensive | private | council (= rented from the local council) | rented | empty, unoccupied, vacant | country, suburban, town | great, manor, mansion The great house stood on the edge of the village. | farm (also farmhouse), ranch | ancestral | communal | summer | tree | halfway, safe a halfway house for prisoners returning to society The police provided a safe house for the informer.

VERB + HOUSE live in, occupy a house occupied by students | share She shares a house with three other nurses. | buy, rent | sell | let (out) We let out our house when we moved to America. | repossess Their house was repossessed when they couldn't keep up their mortgage payments. | move, move into, move out of It's stressful moving house. | set up They want to set up house together | keep She kept house (= cooked, cleaned, etc.) for her elderly parents. | play (at) The children were playing house, giving dinner to their teddies. | build | demolish, knock down, tear down | maintain | decorate, do up, redecorate, refurbish, renovate They bought a dilapidated house when they got married, and are gradually doing it up. | furnish | insulate, rewire | extend We're hoping to extend the house.

HOUSE + VERB be situated, lie, stand The house stood a short distance from the wood. | face sth, overlook sth The house faces south, making the most of the sun. houses overlooking the park | loom The house loomed over him as he waited at the front door. | be worth sth | collapse, fall down | burn down, catch fire | come into view

HOUSE + NOUN agent | buyer, owner The bank offers attractive rates to first-time house buyers. | tenant | building, construction | decoration, improvement, renovation, repairs | builder, decorator, painter | contents | design, plan, planning | hunting | move They helped us with our house move. | prices, rents, values | purchase | sales | mortgage | insurance | repossession | front, interior | number | keys | guest | call In the morning, the doctor makes house calls. | arrest The former dictator is under house arrest in his country mansion. | dust | blaze, fire | party, -warming They've moved house and have invited us to their house-warming on Saturday. | husband He's happy being a house husband while his wife goes out to work. | plant | fly, mouse, sparrow, etc.

PREP. at sb's/the ~ I finally tracked him down at his house in London. | from ~ to ~ She went from house to house collecting signatures for her campaign. | in a/the ~ It was so hot outside we stayed in the house.

PHRASES house-to-house Police are making house-to-house enquiries following the discovery of the body.

2 all the people who live in one house

ADJ. friendly, happy

VERB + HOUSE wake (up) You'll wake up the whole house with that noise.

3 in a theatre/cinema

ADJ. empty | full, packed

VERB + HOUSE play to They played to a packed house.

HOUSE + NOUN lights | manager

PHRASES bring the house down (= please the audience very much), front-of-house (= the parts of a theatre used by the audience) the front-of-house staff

house verb

ADV. adequately At no time in the 19th century were the working classes adequately housed. | badly, inadequately The losers in this society are the old, the sick, the jobless, the homeless and badly housed. | temporarily The fish can be temporarily housed in a smaller aquarium.

You can also check other dicts: house (English, 中文解释 ), wordnet sense, Collins Definition

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