Home

A home is a place of residence or refuge. [1] It is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and be able to store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means o preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, living either in the wild or in a domesticated environment.

There are cultures in which members lack permanent homes, such as with nomadic people.

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Mating is purely an act of self-perpetuation associated with varying degrees of self-gratification; marriage, home building, is largely a matter of self-maintenance, and it implies the evolution of society. Society itself is the aggregated structure of family units. Individuals are very temporary as planetary factors--only families are continuing agencies in social evolution. The family is the channel through which the river of culture and knowledge flows from one generation to another.(84:0)

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Noun

1. a. (Only in OE. and early ME.) A village or town, a collection of dwellings; a vill with its cottages. Obs.

c900 tr. Bæda II. xiv. [xvi.] (1890) 146 He rad betweoh his hamum oe be tunum. 901 O.E. Chron. an. 901 Æelwald sæt binnan æm ham mid æm monnum e him to ebuon. c1205 LAY. 19455 a wes Verolam a swie kinewure hom. b. An estate, a possession. Obs.

c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xix. 22 Wæs foron hæbbend monira homas vel æhta [possessiones]. c1000 ÆLFRIC Gen. xlvii. 20 a hiciptun ealle hira hamas for æs hungres micelnyssa. c1205 LAY. 19537 Ne læten e næuere as hæene, bruken eoure hames.

2. a. A dwelling-place, house, abode; the fixed residence of a family or household; the seat of domestic life and interests; one's own house; the dwelling in which one habitually lives, or which one regards as one's proper abode. Sometimes including the members of a family collectively; the home-circle or household. In N. America and Australasia (and increasingly elsewhere), freq. used to designate a private house or residence merely as a building.

c950 Lindisf. Gosp. John xiv. 2 In hus fadores mines hamas menia sint [Ags. G. manea eardungstowa; Vulg. mansiones]. 971 Blickl. Hom. 25 Se ham is efylled mid heofonlicum gastum. c1000 Laws of Æthelbirht c. 3 (Schmid) Gif cyning æt mannes ham drincæ. c1175 Lamb. Hom. 49 Riche men..e habbe feire huses and feire hames. c1275 in O.E. Misc. 170 Al hit wolle agon. His lond and his hus and his hom. a1300 Cursor M. 5619 Noght fer fra e kinges hame. 1393 LANGL. P. Pl. C. XII. 46 God is nat in at hom. c1440 Promp. Parv. 244/2 Hoome..mancio. c1489 CAXTON Sonnes of Aymon xxviii. 588 All the sike..retourne to theyr home in goode helthe. 1605 SHAKES. Lear II. i. 126, I best thought it fit To answere from our home. a1667 COWLEY Elegy in Eng. Poets (1810) VII. 61 There banish'd Ovid had a lasting home. a1835 MRS. HEMANS Homes of Eng. i, The stately homes of England! How beautiful they stand. 1849 MACAULAY Hist. Eng. iii. I. 351 That attachment which every man naturally feels for his home. 1871 FREEMAN Norm. Conq. IV. xvii. 81 [He] returned to the home which, almost alone among princely homes, supplied a model for lowlier homes to follow. 1879 M. J. LAMB (title) The homes of America. 1882 Harper's Mag. Dec. 58/1 A lovely drive..is bordered with homes, many of which make pretensions to much more than comfort. 1889 Kansas Times & Star 6 July, A fine stone-front home at Twenty-seventh and Troost. Ibid. 5 Dec., For rent, a fine home at 1223 Broadway. 1894 H. DRUMMOND Ascent Man 390 Sacred and happy homes..are the surest guarantees for the moral progress of a nation. 1929 Publishers' Weekly 7 Dec. 2661/1 Then out to see the new Ranh Brauch, a stunning private home turned over to the library. 1930 San Antonio (Texas) Light 31 Jan., Wilson wounded Elliott and his wife in a dispute Wednesday at the Elliott home in Mendota. 1955 A. ROSS Australia 55 37 More houses (or ‘homes’ as a house is kindly called here) are needed. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 1/1 Her three..sons were shot to death in their home. 1971 Timber Trades Jrnl. 14 Aug. 21/1 The June figures showed more private homes completed than in any month since December 1968. 1973 Guardian 18 May 1/6 Motorway schemes..often wipe out considerable numbers of reasonable homes in accessible areas. 1973 Ibid. 20 Oct. 11/6 In Beverly Hills and Bel Air, we saw the homes (never called houses) of Jane Withers, Greer Garson, and Barbra Streisand.

b. transf. Applied to the dwelling- or resting-place of animals or things.

1774 GOLDSM. Nat. Hist. II. V. i. (Squirrel), It continues for some hours at a distance from home, until the alarm be past away. 1821 BYRON Heaven & Earth I. i. 155 Foam, Which the leviathan hath lash'd From his unfathomable home. 1864 WOOD (title) Homes without Hands, being a Description of the Habitations of Animals. 1893 SIR R. BALL Story of Sun 295 To rend this stone from the home where it was originally placed. 1936 C. F. M. SWYNNERTON in Trans. R. Ent. Soc. LXXXIV. 520 Home..that portion of the tsetse-habitat used by the tsetse..for both resting and breeding.

c. The usual contents of a house; a houseful.

1887 Charity Organis. Rev. III. No. 34. 369 The creditor relies..on the power of selling up the ‘home’. 1888 Times 16 Oct. 3/2 He emigrated to America, leaving his wife and children with a home of furniture.

3. (Without qualifying word or plural.) The place of one's dwelling or nurturing, with the conditions, circumstances, and feelings which naturally and properly attach to it, and are associated with it. a home from home, a place away from home which provides home-like accommodation or amenities; also (outside Britain), a home away from home. The absence of the article is prob. connected historically with the constructions at home, to go home (both in OE.), from home (c1300); but it appears also to be connected with the generalized or partly abstract sense, which includes not merely ‘place’ but also ‘state’, and is thus construed like youth, wedlock, health, and other nouns of state.

c1460 Towneley Myst. xiv. 212 In euery place he shall haue hame. 1546 J. HEYWOOD Prov. (1867) 9 Home is homely, though it be poore in syght. 1611 COTGR. s.v. Pouvoir, When all is done home's homelie. 1616 S. WARD Coal from Altar (1627), True zeale loues to keepe home. 1813 BYRON Corsair III. xviii, Oh ! what can sanctify the joys of home? 1822 J. H. PAYNE Song, Home, Sweet Home, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. 1858 HAWTHORNE Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872) I. 51 This life of wandering makes a three days' residence in one place seem like home. 1872 in S. Walker Whistling Commercial (Advt.), The real comforts of a home from home. 1882 A. W. WARD Dickens vii. 223 He was most English in that love of home to which he was never weary of testifying. 1906 Morning Post 1 Feb. 7/2 To provide them with a ‘home from home’ while engaged in the studies which fitted them for the positions in life they were destined to fill. 1907 Daily Chron. 30 Nov. 3/3 The British man is a clubbable animal, and doesn't mind paying handsomely for his ‘home from home’. c1926 ‘MIXER’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 21 It's like a home-away-from-home. 1961 Times 26 May 9/6 Durrants Hotel in George Street, for years the home-from-home of English County families. 1961 M. BEADLE These Ruins are Inhabited (1963) xii. 165 The delicatessen that is the foreigners' home-away-from-home in Oxford. 1962 Guardian 6 Oct. 12/4 The idea is to provide a ‘home from home’ atmosphere for boys between 16 and 19.

4. fig. In various connexions, referring to the grave, or future state: the ‘long’ or ‘last’ home.

1303 R. BRUNNE Handl. Synne 9195 To y long home shalt ou wende. c1375 Sc. Leg. Saints Prol. 32 Quhene he sal cume til his lang hame. 1535 COVERDALE Eccl. xii. 5 Man goeth to his longe home. 1588 SHAKES. Tit. A. I. i. 83 These that I bring vnto their latest home. 1638 SIR T. HERBERT Trav. (ed. 2) 204 A deadly flux..brought that religious Gentleman..in the vigour of his age, to an immortall home. 1722 WOLLASTON Relig. Nat. ix. 218 Preparing for our removal hence to our long home. 1833 I. TAYLOR Fanat. iii. 70 Whatever is spurious is marked already for oblivion, and moves on to its home.

5. A place, region, or state to which one properly belongs, in which one's affections centre, or where one finds refuge, rest, or satisfaction.

1548 HALL Chron., Hen. V 38b, He subdewed Wales..and broughte that unruly parte to his olde home and aunciente degree. 1567 THROCKMORTON Let. to Eliz. 9 Aug. in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) III. 270 They [the Hamiltons] account but the little king betwixt them and home, who may die. 1589 WARNER Alb. Eng. VI. xxxii. (1612) 160 His Brothers twaine, his Nephewes twain, and Neeces three did stand Betwix himselfe and home. 1596 SHAKES. 1 Hen. IV, IV. i. 57 A Randeuous, a Home to flye vnto. 1667 MILTON P.L. x. 1085 Till we end In dust, our final rest and native home. 1873 LYTTON Kenelm Chillingly II. xv, Wherever woman has a tongue, there Mrs. Grundy has a home. 1884 Contemp. Rev. Mar. 315 In the Church of England he found a satisfying home.

6. One's own country, one's native land. Used by Britons abroad, by inhabitants of (former) British colonies and territories, and by those of British descent in the U.S., for Great Britain = the mother-country, the ‘old country’. (Cf. at home: 11b.)

1595 SHAKES. John II. i. 31 Till then faire boy Will I not thinke of home, but follow Armes. 1601 All's Well II. v. 71 That presently you take your way for home. 1755 WASHINGTON Let. to Aug. Washington Apr. (Bartlett), My command was reduced, under a pretence of an order from home. 1817 BROUGHAM in Parl. Deb. I. 545 Whether in consequence of orders from home, or of the views entertained by the local governments. 1837 Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 92 Home always means England; nobody calls India home. 1842 N.Z. Govt. Gaz. Suppl. II. 40 In accordance with instructions from home. 1886 FROUDE Oceana (ed. 2) 78 The Controller..had many questions to ask about ‘home’ and what was going there.

7. The seat, centre, or native habitat; the place or region where a thing is native, indigenous, or most common.

1706 PRIOR Ode to Queen 315 Flandria, by plenty made the home of War. 1871 FREEMAN Norm. Conq. IV. xviii. 125 The return of the Conqueror was ushered in by the destruction of the ecclesiastical home of the nation. 1874 GREEN Short Hist. vii. §5. 386 The South and the West still remained..the great homes of mining and manufacturing activity. 1886 H. M. POSNETT Comp. Lit. IV. ii. 258 Sicily, then, was the real home of bucolic poetry.

8. An institution providing refuge or rest for the destitute, the afflicted, the infirm, etc., or for those who either have no home of their own, or are obliged by their vocation to live at a distance from the home of their family.

1851-61 MAYHEW Lond. Labour II. 81 (Hoppe) These birds are not admitted into the Sailors' Home. 1863 S. LOW Charit. Lond. 31 The Home for Confirmed Invalids. Ibid. Index 312 Home for Aged Annuitants. 1897 Whitaker's Alm. 282 Dr. Barnardo's Homes for Orphan Waifs. Ibid. 285 Homes for Working Girls in London.

9. a. In games: The place in which one is free from attack; the point which one tries to reach; the goal.

1854 DICKENS Let. 12 July (1938) II. 566 The keeping up of a ‘home’ at rounders. 1855 Dorrit vii. 50 The prison children..whooped and ran, and played at hide and seek, and made the bars of the inner gateway ‘Home’. 1870 HARDY & WARE Mod. Hoyle, Backgammon 141 The object of the game is to bring the men round to your own ‘home’, or inner table. 1897 Daily News 18 June 2/3 All the time Watts kept Persimmon in waiting, and not till the line for home did he let the great horse go.

b. Lacrosse. Each of the three players stationed nearest their opponents' goal.

1869 W. G. BEERS Lacrosse (1875) xii. 191 It is essential that Goal-keeper,..and Home should be special men accustomed to those positions. Ibid. 195 Home. Should stand within eight or ten feet of the opposing goal. Ibid. App. 254 The players of each side shall be designated as follows:..‘Home’, nearest opponent's goal. 1892 Lippincott's Mag. XLIX. 746 Outside home, and inside home. Ibid. 748 To secure the ball in the ‘draw-off’..and pass it to the home or attack men. 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 607/1 The three Homes must be adepts in taking short and hard catches with absolute certainty. 1964 Lacrosse (‘Know the Game’ Series) 35 First Home should make moves to as far away as Third Home level, to the goal, and round it. 1973 Sunday Tel. 4 Mar. 38/6 First home, Janet Roberts, with her dynamic underarm flick, deserved more than the two she obtained.

10. The accusative retains its original use after a verb of motion, as in to go or come home (= L. ire, venire domum); but as this construction is otherwise obsolete in the language, home so used is treated practically as an adverb, and has developed purely adverbial uses. See HOME adv.

11. at home. a. At or in one's own house, or place of abode. (In OE. often = ‘in the house’, as distinct from outside.)

805-31 Charter in O.E. Texts 444 Of hina emenum godum aer aet ham. c1000 Ags. Gosp. Mark ix. 33 a hi æt ham [Lindisf. æt huse] wæron. Ibid. Luke ix. 61 Læt me æryst hit cyan am e æt ham [Lindisf. æd ham; Rushw. æt huse] synt. c1205 LAY. 2436 a wæs Guendoleine at hame. 13.. Coer de L. 256 At home ne dwellyd never none, On forfeyture on lyff and londe. 1484 CAXTON Fables of Alfonce (1889) 11 A lytyl catte which she hadde at home. 1504 W. ATKYNSON tr. De Imitatione I. xx. (1893) 168 To byde at whome. 1573 J. SANDFORD Hours Recreat. (1576) 220 When the Catte is not at home, the Myce daunce. 1616-1798 [see CHARITY 9]. a1631 DONNE Lett. (1651) 44 Naturall and inborn charity, beginning at home. 1712 STEELE Spect. No. 431 3, I had not been long at home with him. 1820 W. IRVING Sketch Bk. I. 39 There is still a little world of love at home, of which he is the monarch.

fig. c1440 York Myst. xlviii. 360 e herde em noght, youre eris e hidde, Youre helpe to ame was not at hame. 1796 BURNEY Mem. Metastasio I. 70 A sure sign that your head is at home.

b. In one's own neighbourhood, town, country, etc.; in one's native land. (Opp. to abroad.) In the mother-country, in England. (Cf. sense 6.) The application has gradually widened from uses in which it is hardly distinguishable from the prec.

c1386 CHAUCER Prol. 512 He..dwelleth at hoom, and kepeth wel his folde. c1400 Destr. Troy 9337 Oure buernes..at might haue leuet in hor lond, as lordes at hame. 1548 HALL Chron., Edw. IV 195b, That he then myght do at his pleasure, bothe at home and in outward parties. 1678 WANLEY Wond. Lit. World V. i. §93. 467/2 Unfortunate in his Wars at home and abroad. 1751 in J. F. Hageman Hist. Princeton (1879) I. 59 The administration of his Excellency..has been disadvantageously represented to the ministry at home. 1861 T. GILBERT N.Z. Settlers & Soldiers 33 The..cliffs of Mokau..call to mind the chalk cliffs of dear old EnglandBeachy Head, and other favourite localities at ‘home’. 1873 C. ROBINSON N.S. Wales 105 To all who are struggling to get on at home and yet can hardly keep their heads above the water..we say..come out to this Land of Plenty. 1908 E. J. BANFIELD Confessions of Beachcomber I. ii. 77 Australians cannot with justice complain when the good old folks at home blunder..the while..so much local misapprehension prevails.

c. At one's ease, as if in one's own home; in one's element. Hence, Unconstrained, unembarrassed; familiar or conversant with, well versed in.

1513 MORE in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 811 In his custodie, where he might recon himselfe at home. 1528 TINDALE Answ. Sir T. More 57 The mayde was at home also in heuenly pleasures. 1787 ‘G. GAMBADO’ Acad. Horsemen (1809) 45 Supposing you are now at home enough on horseback, to ride out alone. 1816 KEATINGE Trav. (1817) I. 23 The complete manner in which they appear to be at home at the table. 1860 W. GORDON Dearest Mamma 11 Pray make yourselves at home, gentlemen. 1878 R. B. SMITH Carthage 376 In politics he does not seem to have been at home. 1886 RUSKIN Præterita I. v. 171 More at home on the hills than in the counting-house.

Hence at-homeish, at-homeness: see AT HOME advb. phr.

d. Conventionally understood as = Accessible to callers; prepared to receive visitors. Hence, used as a formula inviting company to an informal reception. See also AT HOME n.

1601 SHAKES. Twel. N. I. v. 117 If it be a suit from the Count, I am sicke, or not at home. What you will, to dismisse it. 1710-13 SWIFT Jrnl. to Stella (K.O.), The Minister is not at home, which I knew to be a lie. 1760 C. JOHNSTON Chrysal II. I. i. 7 Turning to the footman, ‘I thought, sirrah (said she), that I was not to be at home this evening!’ Ibid. ii. 10 You know your company is always welcome. I am always at home to you! 1782 COWPER Progr. Err. 167 Their answer to the call isNot at home. 1849 THACKERAY Pendennis xli, The Marchioness of Steyne would be at home to Mr. Arthur Pendennis upon a given day. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 7 Sept. 3/2 Mrs. S. is ‘At home’ first and third Mondays. 1898 Card, Mrs. M. At Home, Randolph Assembly Rooms, Monday, February 21st, 9 to 11 o'clock. R.S.V.P. Notice, Owing to a recent bereavement Mrs. will not be at home on Thursdays at present.

Hence ‘not-at-home’, the intimation or arrangement that one is not accessible to visitors.

1874 T. HARDY Madding Crowd I. ix. 123 Not-at-homes were hardly naturalized in Weatherbury farm-houses.

e. Cribbage. (See quot. 1877.)

1796 C. JONES Hoyle's Games Improved 294 By attending to the above Calculation any Player may judge whether he is at Home or not. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 577/1 (Cribbage) Each player ought to reckon slightly over six in hand and play and five in crib, or seventeen and a half in two deals to be at home. A player who scores more than the average and leaves his adversary six or seven points in arrear is safe at home. When at home it is best to play off; when the adversary is safe at home it is best to play on.

f. Used in colloq. phrases expressing (freq. scornful) doubt or a query about the identity of a person or thing, e.g. ‘Who is he when he's at home?’

1887 KIPLING Plain Tales from Hills (1888) 99 You..dimonstrate to my frind here, where your frinds are whan they're at home? 1914 E. PUGH Cockney at Home 118 Who is Popkins when he's at home? 1930 J. B. PRIESTLEY Angel Pavement ii. 64 ‘And we can't all look like Mr. Ronald Mawlborough either.’ ‘Who's he when he's at home?’ Mr. Smeeth inquired. 1957 M. KENNEDY Heroes of Clone III. ii. 165 ‘And what's existentialist, when it's at home?’ she asked. 1960 R. COLLIER House called Memory viii. 112 Peachy? I have no idea what you mean. What's that when it's at home? 1972 A. ROSS London Assignment 20 ‘Farrow?’ I said. ‘Who's he when he's at home?’

g. Used of a match when the team referred to is playing on its own ground. (Cf. AWAY adv. 11.)

1898 Football Telegraph (Kettering) 1 Jan. 3/2 Last season,..a splendid victory was achieved at home, the locals winning by 2 goals to 0. 1930 Daily Tel. 5 Dec. 20/3 Clapton Orient, ‘at home’ to Luton Town at Highbury. 1967 Listener 17 Aug. 223/1 They had just lost three matches at home.

12. from home. Away from one's house or place of abode; not at home; abroad. fig. Ill at ease, out of one's element. (See also quot. 1573.)

a1300 Cursor M. 3350 Ysaac was not fra hame. 1573 J. SANDFORD Hours Recreat. (1576) 223, I come from home, that is, I neither winne nor lose. 1618 J. TAYLOR (Water P.) Penniless Pilgr. (1883) 27 Her husband being from home. 1737 BRACKEN Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 77 You are never from Home, if you have such a Horse under you. 1738 JOHNSON London 225 Sign your will, before you sup from home. 1886 M. W. HUNGERFORD Green Pleasure & Grey Grief III. vi. 113 Having run away from home.

13. nearer home. a. lit. Nearer one's own dwelling-place or country. b. fig. In or into closer relation or connexion with oneself; so that one is more closely touched or intimately affected.

1577 HARRISON England III. ii. (1878) II. 13 Peradventure we might haue found the same neerer home. 1709 Refl. Sacheverell's Serm. 22 The Dr. ought to look nearer home. 1712 ADDISON Spect. No. 415 10 In..China, as in Countries nearer home. 1863 QUEEN VICTORIA Let. 5 Aug. in R. Fulford Dearest Mama (1968) 254 No one saw the correspondence. I think the King should look nearer home for such things. 1875 JOWETT Plato (ed. 2) III. 167 There are whole countries too, such as India, or, nearer home, Ireland. 1886 C. M. YONGE Chantry House II. xiv. 138 ‘I meant something nearer home,’ said Clarence, and proceeded to ask if I did not think Lawrence Frith..smitten with Emily. 1969 Listener 2 Jan. 22/2 It seemed thus to be about something both larger and nearer home than Cohn-Bendit's subject.

14. to home. dial. (also U.S.) = At home.

1795 B. DEARBORN Columbian Gram. 139 Improprieties, commonly called Vulgarisms..[include] To home for At home. 1833 J. NEAL Down-Easters I. 62 When he's to home..he's match for gab with anybody 't ever you come across. 1839 Knickerbocker XIV. 153, I used to be quite good at reckoning, when I was to home, in the state of New Hampshire. 1868 LADY VERNEY Stone Edge ii, I'm main sorry Master Broom ain't to home. 1873 ‘S. COOLIDGE’ What Katy Did xii, 'Tain't every girl would know how to take care of a fat old woman, and make her feel to home. 1910 Dialect Notes III. 450 (Western New York) Is your father to home? 1935 Z. N. HURSTON Mules & Men (1970) I. ix. 192 Come on, Big Sweet, we got to go to home. 1972 J. GORES Dead Skip (1973) viii. 52 White meat don't turn me on. I got Maybelle and four cute kids to home.

15. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib., appositive, etc., as home-address, -breeding, -haven, -island, -lesson, -name, -tree, -woe (tr. Ger. heimweh), -worship, -wreck. Also, in sense To, for, or towards home, homeward, as home-breeze, -correspondent, -letter, -longing, -wind: cf. HOME adv. 8a.

1886 M. W. HUNGERFORD Lady Valworth's Diamonds xxiii. (1888) 156 If you will give me his *home address.

1865 H. H. DIXON Field & Fern IV. v. 90 There is no *home breeding to any great extent. 1825 EMILY TAILOR Vis. Las Casas 10 Her full sails catch the *home-breeze joyfully. 1887 H. ERROLL Ugly Duckling III. ix. 143 Something like *home-comfortableness. 1840 LONGFELLOW in Life (1891) I. 359, I hope I shall be a better *home-correspondent than I have been hithertofore. 1852 SUSAN WARNER Queechy (1853) I. 219 Without one softening or home-like touch from any *home-feeling within. a1618 SYLVESTER Paradox agst. Libertie 725 As hee sees his ship her *home-haven enter safe. 1887 World 21 Sept. 15/2 Miss P...has opened a *home-hospital in Weymouth Street. 1887 Spectator 10 Sept. 1220/2 *Home lessons, also, are longer and more exacting than with us. 1894 H. NISBET Bush Girl's Rom. 212 Have you got your *home-letter ready? 1822-34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) II. 507 *Home-longing, when at a remote distance from one's friends and country. 1886 Illustr. Lond. News 27 Nov. 569 Her *home name is ‘the Princess Mary’. 1649 G. DANIEL Trinarch., Hen. V, cxvii, Soe farre Devided..as hee shall not heare *Home-whineinges. 1855 LONGFELLOW Hiaw. iv. 234 Ruler shall you be..Of the *home-wind. 1892 R. KIPLING Barrack-room Ballads, Eng. Flag x, The East Wind roared..Me men call the Home-Wind, for I bring the English home. 1879 F. W. ROBINSON Coward Conscience I. iii, A *home-wreck and a soul cut adrift.

b. In relation to domestic economy: home art(s), care, circle, daughter, education, girl, etc.; home-bird, homebody orig. U.S., a person, etc., who prefers staying at home to going out or travelling; home boarder, a day-boarder, day-boy; home computer, a small computer designed for use in the home, esp. for recreational or educational purposes; homecraft, an art or craft pursued in the home; also, the household arts; home loan, a loan granted to someone to assist in the purchase of a house, flat, etc., to live in; home unit Austral., a flat or apartment, normally one owned by the occupant. (Nowadays indistinguishable from B1, since present-day hyphening cannot be assumed to be a reliable guide to grammatical function.)

1597 DANIEL Civ. Wars VII. lii, Th' ayde, home-disobedience would afford. 1602 CAREW Cornwall II. (1811) 234 Afflictions by home-neighbours. 1621-31 LAUD Sev. Serm. (1847) 86 He may have leisure from home-cares. 1641 BROME Joviall Crew II. Wks. 1873 III. 381 Such was his love to keep me a home-Man. 1740 J. CLARKE Educ. Youth (ed. 3) 204 This is an objection..against a Home-Education. 1802 Edin. Rev. I. 80 The home-group, in which his infancy was spent. 1821 J. F. COOPER Spy I. xi. 175 Marry him I don't think I will unless he becomes steadier and more of a homebody. 1841 DICKENS Let. 16 Mar. (1969) II. 238 With love to all your home circle and from all mine. 1850 C. KINGSLEY Alton Locke vi. 97 To..live a life of sneaking and lying under petticoat government, as all home-birds were sure to do in the long-run. 1853 MRS. GASKELL Ruth III. viii. 230 Leonard's remaining such a home-bird..with such a mother..will do him no harm. 1853 E. S. SHEPPARD Ch. Auchester I. 7 A domestic presence of purity, kindliness, and home-heartedness. 1855 Let. c 20 Oct. (1966) 873 Thank you for your kind message to my home circle. 1857 A. J. SYMONDS Let. 24 May (1967) I. 110 There were two brothers homeboarders but belonging to the School. 1870 MORRIS Earthly Par. II. III. 78 All folk unto the homestead draw, And noted how a homeman there Turned round unto the hillside bare. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 354 Some features of home-life in France. 1881 C. M. YONGE More Bywords (1890) 125 An excellent plan..for bringing the whole family together round our dear old mother and her home daughter. 1883 Evang. Mag. Aug. 349 The dictating of a letter to the home-circle. 1886 F. W. ROBINSON Courting Mary Smith II. xx. 101, I was too much of a home-bird to be satisfied with the change. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 686/1 The Home Arts and Industries Association. 1905 H. A. VACHELL Hill xi. 228 He wished to educate his only son at Harrow as a ‘Home-Boarder’, or day-boy. 1914 M. HILL (title) Homecraft in the classroom. 1924 WODEHOUSE Bill the Conqueror ii. 32 He said this girl was one of those domestic girls, a little home-body, and might be leaving the party any moment now. 1927 PEAKE & FLEURE Hunters & Artists 79 Art mobilier, which has been translated ‘mobiliary art’, ‘portable art’, or ‘home art’. 1927 Daily Express 26 Feb. 5/2 Women who seek a pleasant paying homecraft. Ibid. 23 Mar. 5 Modern Homecraft Notions. 1934 T. WILDER Heaven's My Destination 53 Snappiest little home-girl in Oklahoma. 1941 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Apr. 306 Finally she had to leave her University post... ‘I could no longer keep it and be a home daughter.’ 1944 J. S. HUXLEY On Living in Rev. iii. 28 Ma Ferguson, pictured as a very motherly sort of home-body. 1959 S. GIBBONS Pink Front Door iv. 52 The daughter at home, ‘the home bird’. 1959 News Chronicle 12 Aug. 6/8 She liked to be a homebody and..lie with her head on her master's foot. 1961 R. B. LONG Sentence & its Parts ii. 54 She isn't a home girl. 1961 Spectator 17 Mar. 352 The great increase of home-care cases that must follow the demolition of the mental hospitals. 1962 Southerly XXII. II. 92 By ‘standard words’ is implied those which soberly indicate what they have to indicate (like home-unit and bombora). 1966 AUDEN About House 24 A cellar never takes umbrage; It takes us as we are, explorers, homebodies. 1966 Times 7 Apr. 12/1 The ban on home loans by local authorities has been lifted. 1967 Guardian 16 May 8/4 The one school with ‘home boarders’where some boys live in the town and take ‘bed and breakfast’ at home. 1967 Canad. Ann. Rev. 1966 92 Government support to develop a complex of services, including hospital-based home care programs. 1967 E. HUNT Danger Game viii. 151, I know Mrs. Dell lived in a home unit in Coogee. 1969 T. PARKER Twisting Lane 48, I was a great home-bird myself. 1969 West Australian 5 July 48/2 (Advt.), Prestige loc[ality]..suitable flats or home units. Ibid., Home unit Scarborough open for inspection... This spotless apartment..compr[ises] 2 good bedrms. [etc.]. 1972 P.O. Telephone Directory Sect. 102 (London Postal Area E-K) 513/3 Homecraft Supplies. 1972 Publishers Weekly 30 Oct. 33/2 A country of home~bodies with the concerns of homebodies is quite different from an outgoing one. 1973 Times 27 June 23/1 (headline) Tempers fray in tussle between home loan chiefs and Government. 1973 Sun-Herald (Sydney) 26 Aug. 11/2 (heading) A bolt of lightning damaged a block of home units at Vaucluse. 1976 Computers: Next 5 Yrs. (12th IEEE Computer Soc. Internat. Conf.) 218/1 A distinction must be drawn between a hobby computer and a home computer...The home computer must be designed for the person whose interests lie in the results produced by the machine, rather than in the machine itself. 1978 Times 16 Sept. 17/6 London's next home computer show..takes place at the West Centre Hotel next Thursday. 1985 Listener 31 Jan. 33/1 The phoney war in the home-computer market has become a real price war.

c. In same sense as B2.

1745 W. ELLIS Mod. Husb. VI. I. 33 My Rows of broad Beans in my Home-close. 1774 Garton Inclos. Act 3 All the home-steads, home-closes, and ancient inclosures. 1853 C. W. ADAMS Spring in Canterbury Settlement vii. 69 The home-station was situated at the mouth of the river Motunau. 1870 MORRIS Earthly Par. II. III. 486 Over the homefield toward the wall they drew. 1884 W. SHEPHERD Prairie Experiences 205 Stock are always restless at first on a drive, and are striving to get back on their home-ranges. 1890 BOLDREWOOD Col. Reformer (1891) 353 They were fairly on the sandy home-station track. 1902 N.Z. Illustr. Mag. VII. 117/2 We'll keep the home-block. 1903 ‘T. COLLINS’ Such is Life 170 In two seconds more, Cleopatra was stretching away..towards Yoongoolee home-station, distant about sixteen miles. 1904 ‘G. B. LANCASTER’ Sons o' Men 3 Lane's out-station was twelve rough miles from the home-block. 1915 D. H. LAWRENCE Rainbow i. 6 A confusion of sheds spread into the home-close. 1933 C. DAY LEWIS Dick Willoughby 9 The cowman and his herd moving into the home-meadow.

d. In same sense as B3.

1597 DANIEL Civ. Wars Wks. (1717) 200 The glory lost, which Home-Broils hinder might. 1601 HOLLAND Pliny II. 137 Ech region is furnished sufficiently with home-physicke of their owne. 1622 BACON Hen. VII 76 To set prices by Statute..vpon our Home-Commodities. 1713 in Lond. Gaz. No. 5130/6 Neither do we..fear any Foreign Rivalship to our Home-Manufactures. 1766 W. GORDON Gen. Counting-ho. 365 Whether foreigner or home-trader. 1797 NELSON Let. Apr. (1845) II. 374 Had there been no Fleet in the Channel, the French might have come up the Mediterranean and taken us all; therefore the Home Fleet certainly took care of us and covered us. 1799 J. ROBERTSON Agric. Perth 351 The home-market price was raised. 1804 EARL OF LAUDERDALE Pub. Wealth (1819) 153 In the home-trade. 1867 SMYTH Sailor's Word-bk., Home-Service, the Channel service; any force..stationed in and about the United Kingdom. 1883 Peel City Guardian 15 Sept., Our harbour is once more almost empty, as the Home Fleet are fishing off Douglas. 1889 Spectator 2 Nov., What may be called the home-missionary spirit. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 30 Mar. 2/2 What military stations abroad are now reckoned as Home stations. 1904 To-Day 14 Dec. 162/1 The Present Home Fleet is to be called the Channel Fleet. 1906 Daily Chron. 24 Oct. 7/4 A distinct fleet will be constituted from the ships in commission in reserve, to be called the ‘Home Fleet’. 1915 KIPLING Fringes of Fleet 35 From the peace of the German side he had entered our hectic home-waters. 1927 W. DEEPING Kitty i. 10 A home-service job with one of the home-service battalions. 1941 Ann. Reg. 1940 55 Small bodies of highly mobile and strongly armed troops, known as ‘Ironsides’, after the first Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces. 1972 Whitaker's Almanack 1973 461/1 Sir Andrew Lewis K.C.B. (Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command).

e. In same sense as B4, q.v. f. In same sense as B5.

1638 FORD Fancies I. i, Speak a home-word For my old bachelor lord. 1694 CROWNE Married Beau Ep., A more blunt expression..when they wou'd make a home-proof of such a transgression. 1723 M'WARD Earnest Contend. 196 (Jam.) Your great confidence makes plain and home-dealing with you..necessary. [1711, 1881 Home-truth: see B5.]

g. Of, pertaining to, or concerning oneself; intimate, private, personal. Obs.

1711 SHAFTESBURY Charac. (1737) I. 170 Such confidence they had in this home-dialect of soliloquy. 1726 BUTLER Serm. Rolls x. 195 If this sincere Self-Enjoyment and Home-Satisfaction be thought desirable.

h. objective and obj. gen., as home-breaker, -breaking, -builder, -buyer, -lover, -owner (so -ownership), -seeker, HOME-KEEPER, -KEEPING, -MAKER; home influence, news; home-building, -loving adjs.

1928 Sunday Dispatch 2 Sept. 17/1 As a *home-breaker woman is..as good as a man. 1936 N. COWARD To-night at 8.30 II. 74 You mean you'd prefer to be implicated with a professional homebreaker as opposed to an amateur one?

1907 Daily Chron. 18 June 3/6 *Home-breaking is a more serious offence against society than house-breaking. 1884 J. HALL Chr. Home 82 The recollection..will prevent the young *home-builders from being paralyzed with surprise. 1825 COLERIDGE Aids Refl. Aph. xxxvi. (1848) I. 86 The *home-building, wedded, and divorceless swallow. 1969 Times 20 May 28/3 (headline) S[elective] E[mployment] T[ax] hits *home buyer. 1973 Times 6 Oct. 1/1 A plan to help young home-buyers is likely to be announced within the next week. 1847 G. AQUILAR (title) *Home influence. 1852 C. M. YONGE Two Guardians xiv. 255 Marian had..weakened the only home influence..which held Caroline to the right. 1966 D. JENKINS Educated Society v. 208 Home influence..[is] a major factor in determining whether people will be able to take advantage of educational opportunities. 1856 EMERSON Eng. Traits, Result Wks. (Bohn) II. 133 Truth in private life, untruth in public, marks these *home-loving men. 1876 S. A. BROOKE Eng. Lit. 8 A home-loving people. 1852 MRS. GASKELL Let. 2 Mar. (1966) 181, I don't think there is much *home news. Last week was very quiet; and very busy with writing. 1936 Punch 5 Aug. 144/3 It is one of our principles that our students should earn while they learn, and for this reason our first practical efforts will be in the realms of the easiest department of Romantic Journalism, namely Home News. 1945 NELSON & WRIGHT Tomorrow's House xvii. 203/1 There are almost 35,000,000 dwellings in the United States. Maybe you own one of them... To the *homeowner who is intrigued by..tomorrow's house, several possibilities are open besides..selling the roof over his head. 1956 J. H. GREENBERG in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) 474/1 Homeowners must pay real estate taxes. 1960 Times 21 Nov. (Canadian Suppl.) p. v/6, Canadians are the greatest home-owners in the world. 1960 Times 24 Oct. (Financial Rev.) p. xi/5, Thrift and *home-ownership. 1972 Guardian 6 July 24/7 Home ownership in cities averaged 42 per cent. 1889 Advance (Chicago) 7 Mar. 191 The *home-seekers of the 19th Century Pilgrim Fathers. 1911 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 1 Apr. 12/1 (Advt.), Pandora Avenue Homeseekers. We have the finest residential buy in Victoria today. 1937 Sunday Dispatch 14 Feb. 18/4 The scope for the homeseeker is, in fact, extremely wide. 1963 Times 12 Feb. 8/1 A Homeseeker. Once you have found the house you are looking for, talk..about a loan to help you buy.

i. locative, in sense ‘at home’, with ppl. adjs., vbl. ns., nouns of action, agent-nouns, as home-baked, -based, -built, -consumed, -cooked, -cured, -fed, -formed, -grown, -killed, -left, -produced, -raised, -reared, -woven, HOME-BREWED, -MADE, -SPUN; home-abiding, -cooking, -curing, -dressmaking, -growing, -nursing , -sewing, -sitting, -staying, -touring, -washing; home-duty, -execution, -growth, nurse, -stay; HOME HELP; home-baker, -brewer, -dressmaker, -dweller, -grower, -patient, -sewer, -stayer, -tarrier, etc.

1886 M. HOWITT in Gd. Words 545 The *home-abiding poet Whittier.

1766 H. BROOKE Fool of Quality (1870) I. 99 Nurse went upstairs with a most bountiful cut of *home-baked bread and butter. 1816 JANE AUSTEN Emma II. ix. 186 The finest looking home-baked apples I ever saw in my life. 1870 LOWELL Study Wind. 251 The home-baked Saxon loaf. 1490 Canterb. City Rec., Robertus Dehytyngton, *homebaker. 1944 Ann. Reg. 1943 8 British and American *home-based bombers made..day or night raids. 1956 Nature 25 Feb. 366/2 Six..schemes, applicable to the tropics, which were for home-based work..were added. a1631 DRAYTON Wks. II. 586 (Jod.) *Home-begotten hate. 1676 Rep. Fr. Capers 4 Aug. in Marvell Growth Popery (1678) 59 With their own *home-built Ships. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 27 Dec. 4/3 A considerable proportion of export tonnage besides *home-consumed manufactures..is conveyed by horse-drawn vehicles. 1923 H. CRANE Let. 12 Oct. (1965) 150 A very fine *home-cooked chicken dinner. 1968 M. KANE Walk of Devil iii. 27, I know what you need... A nice home-cooked dinner in pleasant surroundings. 1934 Amer. Speech IX. 113/2 The tourist who enjoys strange foods..will rarely escape the *home-cooking and the home-made pies that emerge from tin cans and factory-like bakeries. 1937 ‘M. HILLIS’ Orchids on Budget (1938) vi. 94 Steaks and roasts are so well prepared in the best restaurants that you might..turn up your nose at them for home cooking. 1968 O. WYND Sumatra Seven Zero i. 5 The other patrons..all came often to get away from home cooking. 1973 H. NIELSEN Severed Key i. 6 Didn't I ever tell you how much I hate home cooking? 1863 MRS. GASKELL Cousin Phillis in Cornh. Mag. Nov. 619, I handled and weighed in my fancy the *home-cured ham. 1959 R. POSTGATE Good Food Guide 236 Breakfast was home-cured ham, thick, well grilled, with eggs and tomato. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 16 Feb. Suppl. 8/1 When Denmark entered the trade at the end of the nineteenth century, bacon was still being produced from the whole sides in an adaptation of the traditional *home-curing method. 1960 Sunday Express 11 Sept. 15/6 The ideal fabric for the home *dress-maker. 1971 Guardian 10 Aug. 9/2 These costly fabrics (up to £50 a yard) are..being displayed..as temptations to home dressmakers. 1896 Woman's Life 4 July 138/1 Many people put up with faults in *home dressmaking which they would rate in a regular dressmaker. 1966 H. YOXALL Fashion of Life viii. 68 When I first joined Vogue the early demise of home-dressmaking was predicted. 1850 MRS. GASKELL Let. 14 May (1966) 117 Girls, having..the *home-duties of parents dependent upon them. 1593 QUEEN ELIZABETH tr. Boeth. IV. pr. i. 76 *Home~dweller in thy country. 1549 COVERDALE, etc. Erasm. Par. Eph. Prol., By foreigne, or *homedwelling enemies. 1573 TUSSER Husb. xxxiii. (1878) 72 Fat *home fed souse, is good in a house. 1825 J. S. MILL in Westm. Rev. III. 418 The *home-grower is subject to many taxes, from which foreign corn is exempt. 1827 Ibid. VII. 173 They consume *home-grown corn. 1846 J. BAXTER Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. p. xxxviii, The independent production of home-grown wool. 1895 Cricket Handbk. 31 It is sincerely to be hoped that the means may yet be found of recruiting the eleven from home-grown cricketers. 1935 Discovery June 162/1 The Great War undoubtedly had a great influence in fostering the canning of home-grown foods. 1959 Times 31 Mar. 11/1 Yet there was nothing unprofessional about the timing, staging, or lighting of even these most home-grown numbers. 1966 Times 28 Feb. (Canada Suppl.) p. xiii/3, Last summer, with a home-grown production of a musical..it played a six weeks season. 1973 J. THOMSON Death Cap iv. 56 A board..announcing in crude, hand-painted letters: ‘For Sale. Home-grown Produce. Flowers. Fruit. Vegetables. Eggs.’ 1825 J. S. MILL in Westm. Rev. III. 413 If the new material..be of *home growth, the production of that material would open a new channel for the profitable employment of agricultural capital. 1873 E. E. ESTCOURT Question of Anglican Ordinations ii. 15 All the preceding seems to have been the direct home-growth of Lollardism or of Wicliffe's teaching. 1906 Daily Chron. 20 Sept. 6/1 Not even an expert could tell the difference between home-bred and *home-killed meat unless he were on the spot. 1602 WARNER Alb. Eng. XII. lxxvi, Why you Should *home-left love forget. 1958 *Home nurse [see HOME HELP]. 1963 Times 24 May 8/5 All the old public assistance buildings replaced by pleasant old people's homes, with sufficient home nurses or home helps. 1905 Daily Chron. 25 Oct. 7/4 Instruction of..future mothers..in..*home-nursing. 1959 Sears, Roebuck Catal. Spring & Summer 831/3 Illustrated family handbook of home nursing and medical care. 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 5 A *home-patient of the Manchester Infirmary. 1827 Lincoln Cabinet 59 Persons residing in Lincoln..unable to attend at the dispensary, shall be deemed home-patients. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 21 Aug. 2/1 Out of deference to the agrarian interest, prohibitive Customs and ‘sanitary’ restrictions keep out the food which is ready on the frontiers, while the prices of *home-produced flesh rise to a height hitherto unknown. 1966 Times 28 Mar. (Austral. Suppl.) p. v/6, Home-produced crude oil. 1866 Rachel's Secr. I. 103 Everything was either home-made or *home-raised. 1886 Badminton Libr., Shooting I. 3 *Home reared birds. 1630 LORD Banian Ep. Ded., Informe the *home-residers with the Manners and Customes of the People. 1964 McCall's Sewing ii. 19/2 Whether you are a beginner or an experienced *home-sewer, every pattern should be carefully studied. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 13 June 13/2 Every *home-sewing room should include..a skirt-board [etc.]. 1964 McCall's Sewing ii. 15 Without patterns, home-sewing would probably be a lost art. 1728 SAVAGE Bastard 76 The guilt of *homeshed blood. 1649 G. DANIEL Trinarch., Hen. V, ccxciii, Enflame *home-sitters by long Pedigrees Of their Atcheivments. 1655 W. GURNALL Chr. in Arm. Ded., To have their Will ready made, and their worldly interests set at *home stay. 1655 E. WATERHOUSE in E. Terry Voy. to E. India Avija, To the gain of homestayes. 1854 THOREAU Walden 170, I the *home-staying, laborious native. 1905 Daily Chron. 9 June 8/5 The home-staying Englishman. 1579-80 NORTH Plutarch 190 The *home-tarriers and house-doves that kept Rome still. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 7 Apr. 3/2 A recipe..for the *home-washing of lace. 1888 Century Mag. XXXVI. 769/1 *Home-woven hats, or knitted caps. j. dative, instrumental and other relations, as home-bound, -fraught, -sheltered, -tied adjs. k. similative, as home-sweet adj. 1882 MAY CROMMELIN Brown-Eyes vi. (1884) 69 Why should the Marken men be so *homebound? 1853 TALFOURD Castilian IV. iii, We'll ensure one hour of *home-fraught comfort. 1823 MOORE Fables Holy Alliance, etc. 104 Calm, wedded affection, that *home-rooted plant. 1882 H. S. HOLLAND Life & Logic (1885) 216 Its dear shores and *home-sweet hills. 1897 Daily News 30 Mar. 8/2 Work amongst the *home-tied and crippled children of London.

Adjective

B. attrib. passing into adj.

These uses do not differ essentially from those treated under 15; but home, being here written separately, functions as an adjective used attributively; in sense 5 it is even used predicatively, and qualified by adverbs more, most, so, etc., like an ordinary adjective. In sense 1, the use is nowadays indistinguishable from 15.

1. Of, relating to, or connected with home or one's home; reared, fostered, or carried on at home; proceeding from home; domestic, ‘family’. Freq. as home comfort.

[c1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 244 Ham [and] wilda hænna.] 1552 HULOET, Home supper, domicnium. 1573 TUSSER Husb. lvi. (1878) 127 Home wants to supplie. 1641 BROME Joviall Crew II. Wks. 1873 III. 380 Home came I In my home Cloaths again. 1849 THACKERAY Pendennis (1871) 624 But this was only a home pastime, and the young school~boy was not fond of home sports. a1855 C. BRONTË Professor (1857) II. xxv. 223 To sit on a foot-stool at the fire-sideto enjoy home-comforts. 1883 E. BLACKWELL Booth, of Blue Ribbon Movem. viii. 91 Home comforts [had gone] to make way for home necessities. 1883 MRS. CUDLIP Mod. Housew. 84 A room that..had the real genuine ‘home look’ about it. 1886 W. J. TUCKER E. Europe 308 The entire garments worn are home manufacture and home tailoring. 1922 JOYCE Ulysses 296 Their abodes were equipped with every modern home comfort. 1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 13 June 15 Some have heard about the living-out system, and dream of feather beds and home comforts. 1973 ‘B. MATHER’ Snowline xix. 225 The place where we're stayingall home comforts and no questions asked.

2. a. In the neighbourhood of or surrounding one's home, or the mansion on an estate. Hence, belonging to head-quarters, principal; as home station.

1662 Providence (R.I.) Rec. (1893) III. 17 The high way..where John Steere his howse standeth and his home share of Land. 1699 Boston Rec. (1881) VII. 236 A great White Oake standing neer by Mr. Benja White's home meadow. 1815 JANE AUSTEN Emma I. xii, Keeping in hand the home farm at Donwell. 1857 R. B. PAUL Lett. fr. Canterbury, N.Z. 89 If you have not decided on the site of your home station on a previous visit to the run, the first step will be to ride well over it. 1864 TROLLOPE Small House at Allington (1879) I. 7 An inner gate, leading from the home paddock, through the gardens. 1865 M. A. BARKER Station Life in N.Z. (1870) v. 31 By the time we reached the Home Station we were ready for luncheon. 1886 World 17 Dec. 11 The home covers were shot on Friday. 1887 Spectator 9 Apr. 495/1 The two home farms brought in a gross revenue of £250. 1930 L. G. D. ACLAND Early Canterbury Runs v. 113 He arranged that his executors should bury him in one of the home paddocks at Cracroft. 1939 P. A. ROLLINS Gone Haywire 62 The ol' man's bin steadily enlargin' his home range till now it includes mos' all the head~waters o' Elk Prairie Crick. 1946 F. D. DAVISON Dusty ix. 95 The sheep were approaching the home paddock. 1966 Te Reo IX. 54 The home paddock and the night paddock which..must in the early years have been the same piece of land.

b. Home Counties, the counties nearest to London, namely Surrey, Kent, Essex (and formerly Middlesex); sometimes with the addition of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and occasionally Sussex. Home Circuit: the assize circuit which has London as its centre: its area has been repeatedly changed; at present (1898) it includes the counties of Hertford, Essex, Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Norfolk, and Suffolk. (See CIRCUIT n. 5.)

1737 J. Chamberlayne's St. Gt. Brit. II. List Offices 262 Clerk of the Assize of the Home-Circuit. 1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 195/1 The Home Circuit comprehends the counties of Hertford, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. 1862 TROLLOPE Orley F. (1868) 67 Mr. Furnival practised at the common law bar, and early in life had attached himself to the home circuit. 1883 H. P. SMITH Gloss. Terms etc. 253 Home Circuit, or South Eastern Circuit, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Herts, Surrey, Kent, Sussex. 1898 Mddx. & Herts. N. & Q. IV. 153 The publication,..will..relate not only to London, Middlesex and Hertfordshire, but also to Essex, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Kent; that is, to the Home Counties. 1959 I. & P. OPIE Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xii. 233 In London and the Home Counties the police now chase off the streets even the simple waits singing Christmas carols. 1966 Listener 11 Aug. 218/1 The chances are..small that a writer setting his play in outer suburbia or inner Home County will make of it more than a painful banality. 1972 J. BLACKBURN For Fear of Little Men ii. 29 Her accent clashed dramatically with the jargon of Home Counties suburbia.

c. Belonging to the county or locality in which a sporting contest or match takes place. home-and-home: applied to two matches, one of which is played at the home or locality of each side.

1800 Spokane Falls (Wash.) Globe 26 July 1/3 Six hundred baseball cranks witnessed..one of the prettiest exhibitions of ball playing that ever took place on the home grounds. 1802 Sporting Mag. XIX. 219/2 They were willing to run a match with a leash of greyhounds..or six brace belonging to each county, running home and home, for a sum to be agreed on. Ibid. 221/2 He has refused to run you home and home, or in any central county between the two. 1886 Times 21 June 10/5 (Cricket, Gentlemen of England v. Australians) The home fielding did not realize expectation. 1886 World No. 632. 9/1 The home crew jumped away with the lead, but the visitors speedily joined company with them again. 1887 F. GALE Game of Cricket 51 The principal innkeeper and a few good local players inaugurated occasionally good out and home matches, in the same season. 1888 Observer 1 July 2/4 A draw, greatly in favour of the home team. 1890 Daily News 10 Dec. 2/4 Somersetshire..have arranged home-and-home matches with Surrey, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Kent [etc.]. 1889 Seattle Post-Intelligencer 3 July 1/8 The home team played an up hill game. 1916 E. F. BENSON David Blaize iv. 60 The home team took the visitors off to the dormitories to put on their flannels. Ibid. 62 The field was cleared for the match; the home side won the toss. 1930 H. G. WELLS Autocr. Mr. Parham II. iii. 109 That complete lack of information about the visitors attributed to the home team. 1955 L. A. G. STRONG Dr. Quicksilver 25 The creator of Zeal-of-the-Land Busy was on his home ground in the last two lines. 1962 Listener 4 Jan. 41/1 Three generations on my home ground were equally disgruntled. 1969 Ibid. 3 Apr. 473/3 The factual conclusion is that if Arsenal had fouled more in these two home games (amongst others), they might have won them. 1972 Oxford Mail 15 Feb. 12/6 Carlisle dropped an unexpected home point last weekend.

d. home signal: on railways, a stop signal marking the end of a block section, and controlling entry either to station limits or the block section ahead. (Cf. DISTANT a. 3d.)

1874, 1889 Home signal [see DISTANT a. 3d]. 1923 W. G. CHAPMAN 10.30 Limited x. 79 The home signal is the second signal reached and is usually near a signal box. It is a stop signal and must not be passed at ‘Danger’. 1940 A. E. TATTERSALL Railway Signalling i. 16 Home and starting signals only for each direction at stations on single lines which are staff or electric token posts will be necessary. 1963 KICHENSIDE & WILLIAMS Brit. Railway Signalling ii. 16 Stop signals are..divided into two types: ‘home’ signals, usually placed on the approach side of a signal box, and ‘starting’ signals, placed beyond or in advance of a signal box... Before a signalman can accept a train from the previous signal box, the line must usually be clear for -mile beyond his home signal. 1968 L. T. C. ROLT Railway Engin. vi. 93 By exhibiting three, or in some cases four, ‘aspects’ they [sc. colour light signals] combine the function of home and distant signals.

e. Home Service, one of the programme services broadcast by the B.B.C. (see quot. 1966). Also Home programme and ellipt., the Home. (On 30 Sept. 1967 the name was changed to ‘Radio 4’.)

1939 Radio Times 8 Sept. 3/1 In addition to the Home Service..two other British programmes are going out every day. One is a short-wave service to the whole world,..the other a short-wave service meant primarily for Europe. 1947 ‘G. ORWELL’ Let. 25 Jan. (1968) IV. 276 It was done on the Eastern and African services, but in those days I wasn't well-connected enough to crash the Home. 1948 [see BREAK v. 51g]. 1960 B.B.C. Handbk. 238, 1939.. Home Service replaced National and Regional Services. 1965 G. MELLY Owning-Up vi. 64 Loudspeakers in every bedroom with a control swith marked ‘Light. Home. Room Service’. 1966 B.B.C. Handbk. 44 The Home Service serves the broad middle section of the community... It is the main vehicle for news and for the daily reporting of Parliamentary proceedings.

3. a. Relating to, fostered, produced, or carried on in, or proceeding from, one's own country or nation; domestic: opp. to foreign.

[1577-87 HOLINSHED Chron. I. 4/1 Diuers other, both forraine and home-writers.] 1591 SHAKES. Two Gent. II. iv. 119 Ile leaue you to confer of home affaires. 1634 SIR T. HERBERT Trav. 150 They are not very inquisitive about forreigne affaires, they are content with home occurrents. 1765 J. WEDGWOOD Let. 2 Mar. (1965) 29 Our home consumption is very trifleing in comparison to what are sent abroad. 1765 in Amer. Hist. Rev. (1921) XXVI. 743 The planters..reside Mostely on the Borders of James and York rivers which is the best soil for tobaco Especially the Sweet sented which is so much Esteemed in England, where they keep it for their own use, or what they Call home Consumption. 1825 J. S. MILL in Westm. Rev. III. 418 A protecting duty, in that case, would be a premium on home production, and, therefore, injurious. 1842 Niles' Reg. 12 Feb. 384/2 A state convention is to be held..at Hartford, Connecticut, to adopt measures for laying before congress the claims of home industry. 1842 J. BISCHOFF Woollen Manuf. (1862) II. 171, I consider the home trade the safest..but I think the foreign trade..the most extensive. 1844 MILL Ess. Pol. Econ. i. 14 It would be for the interest..of Germany herself, to keep her linen a little below the value at which it could be produced in England, in order to keep herself from being supplanted by the home producer. 1848 Pol. Econ. II. III. xviii. 122 The value..of a foreign commodity, depends on the quantity of home produce which must be given to the foreign country in exchange for it. Ibid. V. iv. 400 It would seem that..taxes on exports..fall entirely on foreigners, taxes on imports wholly on the home consumer. 1866 A. L. PERRY Elem. Pol. Econ. (1873) 518 A duty..laid on foreign hats to encourage the home manufacture. 1876 C. M. YONGE Womankind xiii. 97 Factories or small home industries, such as glove or lace making. 1885 Manch. Exam. 29 June 5/1 We have reached a crisis in our home politics. 1886 Globe 25 Mar. 2/4 The home producer complained of foreign goods being carried at a cheaper rate than his home produce. 1926 A. HUXLEY Jesting Pilate I. 187 We shipped the best part of a thousand lacquered kettle-drumsfor home consumption, I suppose. 1937 E. SNOW Red Star over China vii. 253 The bulk of manufacturing..was by handicraft and home industry. 1940 Time 1 Jan. 29/3 Entente Cordiale..was probably intended as French propaganda for home consumption on the present Anglo-French alliance.

b. Treating of domestic affairs; dealing with matters concerning one's own country, as contrasted with foreign countries, or to the mother-country as distinguished from the colonies. Home Office: in Great Britain, the department of the ‘Secretary of State for Home Affairs’ (abbrev. Home Secretary); the building in which its business is carried on.

1797 Jacob's Law Dict. s.v. Secretary, Secretaries of State: for the Home Department; for Foreign Affairs; the Colonies, etc. 1818 SCOTT Rob Roy vii, The Secretary of State for the Home Department. 1828 Home Missionary Mag. May 1 The design of the American Home Missionary Society [founded 1819] is to promote..the religious benefit of a great and growing nation. 1836 Ibid. Sept. 37/1 Endeavour to engage Ministers..to promote the great cause of Home Missions. 1836 (title) Home and Colonial School Association. 1842 Ainsworth's Mag. I. 232, I had occasion to accompany a home missionary into a few of the dens of London. 1844 Ibid. VI. 113 The manuvres by which certain county members manage to obtain audiences of the home secretary, or the colonial secretary. 1855 MRS. GASKELL Let. 27 July (1966) 363 Papa..finished up his Home Mission with an address to the Students in the Chapel. 1844 H. H. WILSON Brit. India II. 514 The Home authorities earnestly recommended to the Indian Governments the immediate [etc.]. 1863 S. LOW Charit. Lond. 255 The societies..may..be classed either under Home Missionary or Foreign Missionary. 1865 DICKENS Mut. Fr. I. iii, A recommendation to the Home Office to offer a reward for the solution of the mystery. 1881 E. W. HAMILTON Diary 25 Dec. (1972) I. 204 An office established to register the decrees of the Home Secretary and other Ministers. 1886 H. C. E. CHILDERS Let. 11 Nov. in S. Childers Life (1901) II. 245 The prerogative of mercy inherent in the Crown is dispensed..by the Home Secretary. 1938 M. C. BOATRIGHT in B. A. Botkin Treas. S. Folklore (1949) I. iv. 96 A Presbyterian home missionary came to a cabin and engaged a woman in conversation. 1958 S. HYLAND Who goes Hang? viii. 44 Home Secretary. A question to the Home Sec. 1966 Listener 17 Mar. 373/1 The Ministry of Defence is classified as a ‘home’ rather than an ‘overseas’ department.

4. In games: Of, pertaining to, or situated at or near ‘home’: see A9; reaching or enabling a player to reach ‘home’. Also transf. (Also hyphened.)

1856 Spirit of Times 4 Oct. 86/1 He was headed off and put out on the home base. Ibid., An injudicious attempt..to get a home run. 1857 Chambers' Inform. II. 689/2 Keep on your ground, and smother these balls by the home-block, rather than risk your wicket by stepping in to hit them. 1867 H. CHADWICK Base Ball Player's Bk. Reference 138 Standing at the home base. 1886 F. H. BURNETT Ld. Fauntleroy vi. (1888) 122 But Mr. Hobbs took me several times to see base-ball..Here is the first base and that's the second, and that's the third, and that's the home~base. Ibid., Once round the field is a home run and counts one. 1895 Pall Mall G. 15 Oct. 9/1 (Golf) In the new order of things this first hole has become the last or home hole. 1920 S. LEWIS Main St. 300 He invariably decided that coming confinement-cases or land-deals would prevent his ‘getting away from home-base for very long this year’. 1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 22 July 12/3 Thirteen hurlers appeared. There were ten home runs, seven two~baggers and four triples. 1962 Listener 22 Feb. 337/2 In a big hit, what the Americans call a ‘home run’, the wood of which the bat is made is called upon to sustain stress several times bigger than would be required to break it in two, if maintained for a longer time. 1966 Ibid. 3 Nov. 644/1 The correspondent who never gets to home base comes to believe he is identifying himself with the ordinary sensible Briton.

5. a. That strikes home; that comes home to one; searching, poignant, pointed; effective, appropriate; to the point, close, direct. Now chiefly in home question, home truth, which are often hyphened: see also HOME-THRUST.

Home was here originally adverbial (home-speaking = speaking home, home-thrust a thrust home): see HOME adv. 4, 5; separation from the vbl. n. has led to its treatment as an adj., and its extension to other ns. as in home truth.

a1625 FLETCHER Faithf. Shepherdess IV. iv, But why Do I resolve to grieve, and not to die? Happy had been the stroke thou gavest, if home. 1625 BP. R. MONTAGU App. Cæsar. 34 This is plaine and home enough. 1642 JER. TAYLOR Episc. (1647) 132 An instance may be given, full, and home to this purpose. 1643 HERLE Answ. Ferne 14 The full and home testimony of Forteskue. 1654 H. L'ESTRANGE Chas. I (1655) 45 The Earl of Bristow..returned so home an answer, as the House was amply satisfied with it. 1709 STEELE Tatler No. 31 9 The other, with a sly serious one, says home Things enough. 1711 SHAFTESBURY Charac. (1737) III. 328 If he has indirectly spoken some home-truth. 1783 F. BURNEY Diary 9 Dec., This was rather a home stroke to be sure. 1785 Ibid. 16 Dec., It is, I own, a very home question. 1788 H. WALPOLE Remin. in Lett. (1857) I. ix. p. cxlii, That negociation not succeeding, the Duchess made a more home push. 1843 LEFEVRE Life Trav. Phys. II. I. xiii. 16 People who pique themselves upon telling home truths. 1844 ALB. SMITH Adv. Mr. Ledbury xxv. (1886) 78 This was a very home question. 1881 M. A. LEWIS 2 Pretty Girls III. 267 What a nice word ‘home’ is, and everything connected with it..All except home-truths. 1897 SIR H. GOUGH Old Mem. ii. 95 That curious feeling of victory already won seems to be the prevailing sentiment in a good home charge.

b. home key: in Mus., the basic key in which a work is written.

1959 D. COOKE Lang. Mus. v. 269 ‘They finally decide on E minor, which is, after all, the home key.’ It is obvious that a modern composer need not be concerned about ending in the ‘home key’, after the ‘progressive tonality of Mahler, Nielsen and others’. 1968 Listener 22 Aug. 250/1 The ‘home’ key of Weill's original score..is C.

DRAFT ADDITIONS MAY 2004

home, n.1 and adj.

home banking n. orig. U.S. (the use of) a banking facility in which the account holder may carry out banking transactions from home, (now) esp. by means of a home computer, a telephone (cf. TELEPHONE BANKING n.), or through a cable television network.

1955 Mansfield (Ohio) News-Jrnl. (Electronic text) 22 Feb. (advt.), Enjoy our ‘Red Line Special Bank-By-Mail’ service, providing complete *home banking. 1979 Amer. Banker (Nexis) 24 Jan. 8 (headline) Ultimate growth of home banking awaits resolution of legal & technical issues. 1984 Financial Times 23 Oct. I. 8/6 Mentioning his own company's telebroking service, Mr Baughan said home banking and home broking would soon be linked. 1995 Newsweek 8 May 71/2 A ‘home banking’ empire, a digital dreamland where you'll apply for loans, pay bills and buy mutual funds from your living room with a click of the mouse.

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