house

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A structure serving as a dwelling for one or more persons, especially for a family.
• noun A household or family.
• noun Something, such as a burrow or shell, that serves as a shelter or habitation for a wild animal.
• noun A dwelling for a group of people, such as students or members of a religious community, who live together as a unit.
• noun A building that functions as the primary shelter or location of something.
• noun A facility, such as a theater or restaurant, that provides entertainment or food for the public.
• noun The audience or patrons of such an establishment.
• noun A commercial firm.
• noun A publishing company.
• noun A gambling casino.
• noun Slang A house of prostitution.
• noun A residential college within a university.
• noun A legislative or deliberative assembly.
• noun The hall or chamber in which such an assembly meets.
• noun A quorum of such an assembly.
• noun A family line including ancestors and descendants, especially a royal or noble family.
• noun One of the 12 parts into which the heavens are divided in astrology.
• noun The sign of the zodiac indicating the seat or station of a planet in the heavens.
• noun House music.
• intransitive verb To provide living quarters for; lodge.
• intransitive verb To shelter, keep, or store in a house or other structure.
• intransitive verb To fit (something) into a socket or mortise.
• intransitive verb Nautical To secure or stow safely.
• intransitive verb To reside; dwell.
• intransitive verb To take shelter.
• idiom (on fire/afire) In an extremely speedy manner.
• idiom (on the house) At the expense of the establishment; free.
• idiom (put/set) To organize one's affairs in a sensible, logical way.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A covering; housing; especially, a covering of textile material, as for a piece of furniture, fitted more or less accurately to the object covered.
• noun A child's coverlet.
• noun A building designed to be used as a place of residence, or of human occupation for any purpose: as, a dwelling-house; a banking-house; a house of worship; a public house.
• noun Hence An abiding-place; an abode; a place or means of lodgment; a fixed shelter or investment: as, the hermit-crab carries its house on its back.
• noun A building used for some purpose other than human occupation: usually with a descriptive prefix: as, a cow-house; a warehouse; a tool-house.
• noun The persons collectively who dwell together under one roof; a family; a household.
• noun A family regarded as consisting of ancestors, descendants, and kindred; a race of persons from one stock; a tribe; especially, a noble family or an illustrious race: as, the house of Hapsburg; the house of Hanover; the house of Israel or of Judah.
• noun A legislative body; usually, one of the divisions of the legislative branch of a government acting separately, or of any deliberative body divided into two chambers: as, the House of Lords or of Commons in the British Parliament; the House of Representatives in the United States Congress; the House of Bishops and the House of Delegates in the American Episcopal Church.
• noun Specifically, in the United States, the lower house, or House of Representatives, the more numerous of the two bodies of the national legislature. The name is also given in some States to the corresponding body in the State legislature. See congress, 4.
• noun The audience or attendance at a place of entertainment.
• noun In com., a firm or commercial establishment: as, the house of Jones Brothers.
• noun Chamber; room; specifically, in provincial English use, the ordinary sitting-room in a farm-house; in sulphuric-acid works, one of the chambers in which the acid is formed.
• noun In astrology, a twelfth part of the heavens as divided by great circles drawn through the north and south points of the horizon, in the same way as meridians pass through the earth's poles.
• noun A square or division on a chess-board.—
• noun The workhouse; poorhouse.
• noun An outhouse; a privy.
• noun In some tunicates, as Appendicularia and Oikopleura, a temporary gelatinous envelop, representing the tunic of other forms. It is formed with great rapidity as a secretion from the surface of the ectoderm and is frequently thrown off and renewed.