alehouse

A1L1E1H4O1U1S1E1

noun

A business, such as an inn or tavern, where ale is sold; (loosely) any beerhouse.

“Near-synonyms: (broadly synonymous) beerhouse, beer parlour, beer bar, pub, saloon; (overlapping) brewpub”

UncommonScrabble 11

Meanings

nounalehouse (plural alehouses)

plural alehouses · alternative ale house · alternative ale-house

  1. A business, such as an inn or tavern, where ale is sold; (loosely) any beerhouse.

    Near-synonyms: (broadly synonymous) beerhouse, beer parlour, beer bar, pub, saloon; (overlapping) brewpub

    3 more examples

    Find him in a pulpit but twiſe in the yeare, And Ile find him fortie times in the ale-houſe taſting ſtrong beare.

    1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I

    But go to—carry thy roisterers elsewhere—to the alehouse if they list, and there are crowns to pay your charges—make out the day’s madness without doing more mischief, and be wise men to-morrow—and hereafter learn to serve a good cause better than by acting like ruffians.

    1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 326

    Mention has been already made more than once, of a certain Dragon who swung and creaked complainingly before the village ale-house door.

    1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 19

    Synonyms: beerhouse, beer parlour, beer bar, pub, saloon, brewpub

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA business, such as an inn or tavern, where ale is sold; (loosely) any beerhouse.

Origin

  1. Proto-Germanic*aluþhūsą
  2. Old Englishealuhūs
  3. Middle Englishalehous
  4. Englishalehouse

From Middle English alehous, alehuse from Old English ealuhūs. By surface analysis, ale + house.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

alehouse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alehouse

MLA

“alehouse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alehouse. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “alehouse,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alehouse.

Source: alehouse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.