boarding-house

A form of boarding house — A private house in which paying residents are provided with accommodation and meals.

Meanings

nounboarding-house (plural boarding-houses)

plural boarding-houses

  1. alternativeAlternative form of boarding house.

    1884, Henry James, "A New England Winter" in The Century Magazine 28 (4–5) (August–September 1884). The fleshpots were full, under Donald Mesh's roof, and his wife could easily believe that the poor girl would not be in a hurry to return to her boarding-house in Brooklyn.

    5 more examples

    The housemaid at the boarding-house where we have stayed since we left Heathstock is a fat, sonsy, good-natured girl, perfectly ignorant and stupid, but she has not been long in the colony, and seems willing to learn.

    1866 January 29, Mary Anne Barker, “Letter VI”, in Station Life in New Zealand, London: Macmillan & co, published 1870, page 44

    The janitor of the College to which I went directed me to a boarding-house, where I engaged a small, third-story room, which I afterwards shared with Mr. Chaucer of Jawjah, as he called the State which he had the honor to represent.

    1867 October, The Atlantic Monthly, volume XX, page 468

    Throughout the United States of America, the system of hôtels has taken a peculiar turn. The hôtels are built for the purpose, and usually very large; with few exceptions they are conducted as boarding-houses on the plan of charging so much per diem, everything included excepting liquor, which is obtainable in a large drinking-room called the bar.

    1871, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, “HÔTEL”, in Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People, volume 5, page 437

    Those who come to stay over a month or two invariably abandon the hotels and take to the boarding-houses, where they can live much more comfortably and fare better for half the expense. The charge at these houses ranges from eight to twelve francs per day, including finely-furnished chambers and the use of the parlors, pianos, etc., wine at déjeûner and dinner.

    1874, Charles Carroll Fulton, Europe Viewed through American Spectacles, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., page 153, column 1

    The bibliotaph buries books; not literally, but sometimes with as much effect as if he had put his books underground. There are several varieties of him. The dog-in-the-manger bibliotaph is the worst; he uses his books but little himself, and allows others to use them not at all. On the other hand, a man may be a bibliotaph simply from inability to get at his books. He may be homeless, a bachelor, a denizen of boarding-houses, a wanderer upon the face of the earth.

    1898, Leon H. Vincent, The Bibliotaph And Other People
Cite this entry
APA

boarding-house. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/boarding-house

MLA

“boarding-house.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/boarding-house. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “boarding-house,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/boarding-house.

Source: boarding-house on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.