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plural homes · alternative Northumbria hyem

1. A dwelling.
   1. One’s own dwelling place; the house or structure in which one lives; especially the house in which one lives with one's family; the habitual abode of one’s family.

      And the diſciples went awaye agayne vnto their awne home.

      1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John xx:[10], folio clj, recto

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      Thither for ease and soft repose we come: / Home is the sacred refuge of our life; / Secured from all approaches, but a wife.

      1808, John Dryden, edited by Walter Scott, The Works of John Dryden

      Home! home! sweet, sweet home! / There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.

      1822, John Howard Payne, Home! Sweet Home!

      If we now say that "woman's place is in the home," it is not because men put her there, but because the home became the capitol of women's mysteries.

      1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 132

      Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

      2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28

      Synonyms: tenement, house, dwelling, abode, domicile, residence

   2. The place (residence, settlement, country, etc.), where a person was born or raised; a childhood or parental home; the home of one’s parents or guardian.

      Does she still live at home? - No, she moved out and got an apartment when she was 18, but she still lives in the city.

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      The rights listed in the UNCRC cover all areas of children's lives such as their right to have a home and their right to be educated.

      2004, Jean Harrison, Home

   3. The abiding place of the affections, especially of the domestic affections.

      He enter’d in the house—his home no more, / For without hearts there is no home;[…]

      1821, George Gordon Byron, Don Juan, canto III

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      You only live life one time / Thank God I'll never live alone / My heart will always have a home / Living with you

      1977, Keith Barrow, “Precious”, in Keith Barrow

   4. A house that has been made homelike, to suit the comfort of those who live there.

      It's what you bring into a house that makes it a home

   5. A place of refuge, rest or care; an asylum.

      a veterans' home

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      a home for outcasts

      a home for the blind

      Instead of a pet store, get your new dog from the local dogs’ home.

      Our grandmama's moved into a home.

   6. broadlyThe grave; the final rest; also, the native and eternal dwelling place of the soul.

      […] because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: […]

      1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Ecclesiastes 12:5

   7. broadlyAnything that serves the functions of a home, as comfort, safety, sense of belonging, etc.

      The rights of modern transsexual women and men to live in the sex that is "home".

      2007 January 10, Leslie Feinberg, “1976 WWP pamphlet found answers in Marxism”, in Workers World

2. One’s native land; the place or country in which one dwells; the place where one’s ancestors dwell or dwelt.

   Have you any people at Home, Guy, to be pleased with your performances?

   1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Hill of Illusion”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 93

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   Visiting these famous localities, and a great many others, I hope that I do not compromise my American patriotism by acknowledging that I was often conscious of a fervent hereditary attachment to the native soil of our forefathers, and felt it to be our own Old Home.

   1863, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches

   It seems possible that […] the ancestors of the gipsies brought the legend with them to Transylvania from their old home in India.

   1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 178

   So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   I've been to cities that never close down / From New York to Rio and old London town / But no matter how far or how wide I roam / I still call Australia home.

   1980, Peter Allen, song, I Still Call Australia Home

3. The locality where a thing is usually found, or was first found, or where it is naturally abundant; habitat; seat.

   the home of the pine

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   […] Flandria, by plenty made the home of war, / Shall weep her crime, and bow to Charles r'estor'd, […]

   1706, Matthew Prior, An Ode, Humbly Inscribed to the Queen, on the ẛucceẛs of Her Majeẛty's Arms, 1706, as republished in 1795, Robert Anderson (editor), The Works of the British Poets

   Her eyes are homes of silent prayer, / Nor other thought her mind admits / But, he was dead, and there he sits, / And he that brought him back is there.

   1849, Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A. H. H.

   Africa is home to so many premier-league diseases (such as AIDS, childhood diarrhoea, malaria and tuberculosis) that those in lower divisions are easily ignored.

   2013 September 7, “Nodding acquaintance”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852

4. A focus point.
   1. board gamesThe ultimate point aimed at in a progress; the goal.

      The object of Sorry! is to get all four of your pawns to your home.

   2. ball gamesHome plate.

      Synonyms: home base

   3. ball gamesThe place of a player in front of an opponent’s goal; also, the player.
   4. InternetThe landing page of a website; the site's homepage.
   5. informalentertainmentThe chord at which a melody starts and to which it can resolve.
5. abbreviationclippingcomputingClipping of home directory.

present singular third person homes · participle present homing · participle past homed · past homed · alternative Northumbria hyem

1. intransitiveTo return to its owner.

   The dog homed.

alternative Northumbria hyem

1. not comparableOf, from, or pertaining to one’s dwelling or country; domestic; not foreign.First known use 13th c.

   home comforts

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   home manufactures

   It is unclear where Haley’s campaign goes from here. Until now, she has powered through the losses, fuelled in part by Americans for Prosperity Action, a powerful funding arm affiliated with the Koch network. But AFP Action abandoned the Haley campaign after she lost in South Carolina, her home state.

   2024 February 27, Alice Herman, “[Donald] Trump defeats [Nikki] Haley in Michigan primary but warning signs appear”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2024

2. archaicnot comparableexcept in phrasesThat strikes home; direct, pointed.First known use 17th c.

   a home truth

3. not comparableobsoletePersonal, intimate.First known use 17th–19th c.

   I hardly knew what I answered him, but, by degrees I tranquillised, as I found he forbore distressing me any further, by such Home strokes […].

   1778, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 91

4. not comparablehobbiesRelating to the home team (the team at whose venue a game is played).First known use 19th c.

   the home end, home advantage, home supporters

   Antonyms: away, road, visitor

alternative Northumbria hyem

1. To one's home.
   1. not comparableTo one's place of residence or one's customary or official location.

      go home

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      come home

      carry someone home

      I invited them home.

      He made no complaint of his ill-fortune, but only repeated in a quiet voice, with a pathos of which he was himself evidently unconscious, "I want to get home to Ninety-second Street, Philadelphia."

      1863, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches

      Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.

      1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16

   2. not comparableTo one's place of birth.
   3. not comparableTo the place where it belongs; to the end of a course; to the full length.

      ram a cartridge home

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      She drove the nail home

      Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home: […]

      c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

      Eventually she managed to slide the lid of the pencil-box right home and the newt was hers. Then, on second thoughts, she opened the lid just the tiniest fraction so that the creature could breathe.

      1988, Roald Dahl, Matilda

   4. Internetnot comparableTo the home page.

      Click here to go home.

2. not comparableAt or in one's place of residence or one's customary or official location; at home.

   1975-1976, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure I'm certainly not the type to sit home waiting up for hubbie every night.

3. not comparableTo a full and intimate degree; to the heart of the matter; fully, directly.

   1625, Francis Bacon, dedication to the Duke of Buckingham, in Essays Civil and Moral, I do now publish my Essays; which of all my other works have been most current : for that, as it seems, they come home to men's business and bosoms.

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   How home the charge reaches us, has been made out by ẛhewing with what high impudence ẛome amongẛt us defend sin, […]

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

   Her treatment of you, you say, does no credit either to her education or fine sense. Very home put, truly!

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LXVII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC

4. UKnot comparableball gamesinto the goal

   2004, Tottenham 4-4 Leicester, BBC Sport: February, Walker was penalised for a picking up a Gerry Taggart backpass and from the resulting free-kick, Keane fired home after Johnnie Jackson's initial effort was blocked.

5. not comparablenauticalinto the right, proper or stowed position

   sails sheeted home

1. uncountablecomputingA key that when pressed causes the cursor to go to the first character of the current line, or in a web browser to the top of the web page.

1. A habitational surname from Old English.
2. A number of places in the United States, all apparently meaning home, a place to live:
   1. An unincorporated community in Franklin Township, Marshall County, Kansas.
   2. An unincorporated community in Rayne Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
   3. A census-designated place in Pierce County, Washington.
   4. An unincorporated community in Braxton County, West Virginia.