housewarming

plural housewarmings · alternative house warming · alternative house-warming

1. idiomaticA party to celebrate moving into a new home.

   In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Synonyms: house-heating

2. The act of welcoming a person/family to their newly purchased or newly rented home.

   a housewarming gift

   2 more examples

   They had their first argument on the evening Gadney moved in, their housewarming spat, he later called it.

   2004, Jacob M Appel, “Gadney's Immunity”, in Southwest Review, volume 89, number 4, page 580

   Fortunately, Dave had left them a packet of rollie tobacco and papers for a housewarming

   2011, John Kinsella, The Offering