house

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noun

1 building that is made for one family to live in

ADJECTIVE

▪ beautiful, comfortable, elegant, fancy (esp. AmE), fine, grand, handsome, lovely, luxurious, magnificent, posh (esp. BrE), pretty

▪ dream

▪

They built their own dream house overlooking the river.

▪ dingy, gloomy, ugly

▪ derelict, dilapidated, ramshackle, shabby, untidy (BrE)

▪ abandoned

▪ detached, semi-detached

▪ row (AmE), terrace (BrE), terraced (BrE)

▪ big, enormous, gigantic, huge, large, palatial, spacious

▪ rambling

▪

It was easy to get lost in the rambling house.

▪ little, modest, small, tiny

▪

They lived in a modest semi-detached house in the suburbs.

▪ single-storey/single-story, single-storeyed/single-storied, two-storey/two-story, etc.

▪ four-bedroom, four-bedroomed, eight-room, eight-roomed, etc.

▪ brick, gabled (esp. BrE), half-timbered (esp. BrE), red-brick, thatched

▪ expensive

▪ private

▪ council (BrE)

▪ rented

▪ empty, unoccupied, vacant

▪ country, suburban, town (usually townhouse in AmE)

▪ great, manor (BrE), mansion (esp. BrE)

▪

The great house stood on the edge of the town.

▪ farm (usually farmhouse)

▪ ranch (AmE)

▪ tract (AmE)

▪ ancestral

▪ communal, group (AmE), shared (BrE)

▪

I live in a group/shared house (= with people who are not my family).

▪ summer

▪ beach

▪ tree

▪ halfway, safe

▪

a halfway house for prisoners returning to society

▪

The police provided a safe house for the informer.

▪ haunted

VERB + HOUSE

▪ live in, occupy

▪

a house occupied by students

▪ share

▪

She shares a house with three other nurses.

▪ buy, rent

▪ sell

▪ have, own

▪ let (esp. BrE), let out (esp. BrE), rent out

▪

We let out our house when we moved to America.

▪

We're only planning on renting the house out for a few years.

▪ repossess (esp. BrE)

▪

Their house was repossessed when they couldn't keep up their mortgage payments.

▪ move (BrE), move into, move out of

▪

It's stressful moving house.

▪

We had to move out of our house.

▪ set up

▪

They want to set up house together.

▪ keep

▪

She kept house (= cooked, cleaned, etc.) for her elderly parents.

▪ play

▪

The children were playing house, giving dinner to their dolls.

▪ build

▪ demolish, knock down, tear down

▪ maintain

▪ decorate (esp. BrE), do up (BrE), redecorate, refurbish, renovate

▪

They bought an old house and are gradually renovating it.

▪ furnish

▪ clean

▪ insulate, rewire

▪ add onto, extend

▪

We're hoping to extend the house.

▪

Our challenge was to add onto the house in a respectful way.

▪ search

▪

Police officers have been searching the house for clues.

▪ wake up

▪

You'll wake up the whole house (= all the people in the house) with that noise.

HOUSE + VERB

▪ be situated, lie, stand

▪

The house stood a short distance from the woods.

▪ face sth, overlook sth

▪

The house faces south, making the most of the sun.

▪

houses overlooking the park

▪ loom

▪

The house loomed over him as he waited at the front door.

▪ be worth sth

▪ collapse, fall down

▪ burn down, catch fire, catch on fire (AmE)

▪ come into view

HOUSE + NOUN

▪ agent (BrE)

▪ buyer, owner

▪

The bank offers attractive rates to first-time house buyers.

▪ tenant (BrE)

▪ building, construction

▪ decoration (BrE), improvement (esp. BrE), renovation, repairs

▪ builder, painter

▪ contents (esp. BrE)

▪ design, plan, planning

▪ hunting

▪ move (esp. BrE)

▪

They helped us with our house move.

▪ prices, rents (esp. BrE), values (esp. BrE)

▪ purchase

▪ sales

▪ insurance (esp. BrE) (usually home insurance in AmE)

▪ front, interior

▪ number

▪ keys

▪ guest

▪ call

▪

In the morning, the doctor makes house calls.

▪ arrest

▪

The former dictator is under house arrest in his country mansion.

▪ dust

▪ blaze (BrE), fire

▪ party

▪ husband

▪

He's happy being a house husband while his wife goes out to work.

▪ plant

▪ fly, mouse, sparrow, etc.

PREPOSITION

▪ at sb's/the house

▪

I finally tracked him down at his house in Denver.

▪ from house to house

▪

She went from house to house collecting signatures for her campaign.

▪ in a/the house

▪

It was so hot outside we stayed in the house.

2 in a theatre/theater

ADJECTIVE

▪ empty

▪ full, packed

VERB + HOUSE

▪ play to

▪

They played to a packed house.

HOUSE + NOUN

▪ lights

▪ manager

PHRASES

▪ bring the house down (= please the audience very much)

▪ front of house (= the area used by the audience)

▪

I work front of house.

▪

the front-of-house staff

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verb

ADVERB

▪ permanently, temporarily

▪

The fish can be temporarily housed in a smaller aquarium.

▪ individually, separately

▪

The rabbits were housed individually.

▪ adequately (esp. BrE)

▪

At no time in the 19th century were the working classes adequately housed.

▪ badly (esp. BrE)

▪

The losers in this society are the homeless and badly housed.

House is used with these nouns as the subject: ↑building, ↑facility, ↑gallery, ↑museum

House is used with these nouns as the object: ↑archive, ↑collection, ↑exhibit, ↑exhibition, ↑inmate, ↑machinery, ↑museum, ↑refugee