housie

plural housies · alternative housie-housie

1. AustraliaNew ZealanduncountableA gambling game similar to bingo.

   Thursday night was housie night at St Monica′s hall.

   2010, Kate Howarth, Ten Hail Marys, University of Queensland Press, page 98

   3 more examples

   Aficionados continued to play housie for the rest of the decade, but always under the threat of criminal prosecution.

   1994, David Grant, On a Roll: A History of Gambling and Lotteries in New Zealand, page 138

   She ran raffles, card games and housie to raise money for Māori welfare.

   2001, Patricia Grace, Irihapeti Ramsden, Jonathan Dennis, The Silent Migration: Ngati Poneke Young Maori Club, 1937-1948, page 119

   2010, Michael Caulfield (editor), The Voices of War: Australians Tell Their Stories from World War I to the Present, unumbered page, He was very officious—universally hated—and bingo, then called housie, was illegal, because we had a housie game and we used to play this on deck and we were all up on deck in our shorts and we′d give warning if he was coming.

2. countableslangOne who is not homeless.
3. childishcountablediminutiverareDiminutive of house.

   I seem to be the guardian of another four captive bred field mice :-) I'd guessed that there were some because of the behaviour of the other six and (bit of a giveaway this) the faint squeaking coming from their little housie.

   2002 June 13, gareth jones, “More mouseletts^([sic]) + smell”, in alt.pets.mice (Usenet), archived from the original on 16 Jul 2026

   2 more examples

   Deeper down he felt strangely like Goldilocks in the old kids’ story. He was sitting in Baby Bear’s chair, he had Baby Bear’s book in his lap, and he was going to find Baby Bear’s little housie. Before long, if all went well, he would be hiding underneath Baby Bear’s little beddie.

   1995, Stephen King, “The Manta Ray”, in Rose Madder, London: BCA [Book Club Associates], →OCLC, section 1, page 119

   On the other hand, I've always appreciated phonetic script over ideograms. I'd druther have "home", "reload", "open", "print", "find" and so on instead of a little housie, a little self-refferential^([sic]) arrow, a cute little keyboard, a sheet of paper, and a pair of binoculars.

   1996 October 24, Wayne Throop, “JMS on CompuServe (Oct 17, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*”, in rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (Usenet), archived from the original on 16 Jul 2026