lodge

plural lodges

1. A building for recreational use such as a hunting lodge or a summer cabin.
2. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of porter's lodge: a building or room near the entrance of an estate or building, especially (UK, Canada) as a college mailroom.

   [H]e walked across Hawthorn Tree Court on his way to the porter's lodge. […] At the lodge he cleared his pigeon-hole.

   1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 39

3. A local chapter of some fraternities, such as freemasons.
4. USA local chapter of a trade union.
5. A rural hotel or resort, an inn.
6. A beaver's shelter constructed on a pond or lake.
7. A den or cave.
8. The chamber of an abbot, prior, or head of a college.
9. businessThe space at the mouth of a level next to the shaft, widened to permit wagons to pass, or ore to be deposited for hoisting; called also platt.
10. A collection of objects lodged together.

    the Maldives, a famous lodge of islands

    1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC

11. A Native American home, such as teepee or wigwam.

    "In my lodge there is only one woman."

    1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, Flame on the Frontier; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 28

    1. broadlyThe people who live in one such home; a household.
    2. historicalA family of Native Americans, or the persons who usually occupy an Indian lodge; as a unit of enumeration, reckoned from four to six persons.

       The tribe consists of about two hundred lodges, that is, of about a thousand individuals.

present singular third person lodges · participle present lodging · participle past lodged · past lodged

1. intransitiveTo be firmly fixed in a specified position.

   The bullet missed its target and lodged in the bark of a tree.

2. transitiveTo firmly fix in a specified position.

   I've got some spinach lodged between my teeth.

3. intransitiveTo stay in a boarding-house, paying rent to the resident landlord or landlady.

   The detective Sherlock Holmes lodged in Baker Street.

4. intransitiveTo stay in any place or shelter.

   Stay and lodge by me this night.

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   2 more examples

   Something holy lodges in that breast.

   Comus

   1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC

   It then becomes necessary for the men to lodge away from home, and at places on the system where large numbers require accommodation regularly, the L.M.S.R. maintains 43 permanent staff hostels.

   1947 March and April, “L.M.S.R. Hostels for Trainmen”, in Railway Magazine, page 75

   Synonyms: stay over, stop, keep, quarter, sleep over, sojourn, stay, stay over

5. transitiveTo drive (an animal) to covert.

   1 more example

   This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set. When you find and rouse up the stag and buck, they are said to be imprimed: […]

   1819, John Mayer, The Sportsman's Directory, or Park and Gamekeeper's Companion

6. transitiveTo supply with a room or place to sleep in for a time.
7. transitiveTo put money, jewellery, or other valuables for safety.
8. transitivegovernmentTo place (a statement, etc.) with the proper authorities (such as courts, etc.).

   to lodge a complaint

   3 more examples

   Powers that are lodged with the cabinet.

   He [Harry Maguire] maintains his innocence and has lodged an appeal—which means a retrial and the conviction being set aside in the meantime—[…].

   2020 October 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-1 Denmark: 'Harry Maguire looked devoid of confidence in Nations League loss'”, in BBC Sport

   MPs have moved to lodge a parliamentary motion to strip Prince Andrew of his dukedom, in a rarely permitted move in the Commons. […] On Tuesday, the SNP lodged an early-day motion (EDM) to formally remove Prince Andrew’s title as Duke of York, which he has said he will no longer use.

   2025 October 21, Jessica Elgot, “MPs move to lodge parliamentary motion to strip Prince Andrew of dukedom”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

9. intransitiveTo become flattened, as grass or grain, when overgrown or beaten down by the wind.

   The heavy rain caused the wheat to lodge.

10. transitiveTo cause to flatten, as grass or grain.

plural Lodges

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. A place in the United States:
   1. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Sangamon Township, Piatt County, Illinois.
   2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in the western part of Lorance Township, Bollinger County, Missouri.
   3. countableuncountableA town in Colleton County, South Carolina.
   4. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Northumberland County, Virginia.