open house

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open house

1. A social event in which hospitality is extended to all.

2. An occasion when a school or institution is open for visiting and observation by the public.

a. A period of time during which a house or apartment for sale or rent is held open for public viewing.

b. A house or apartment open for such viewing.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

open house

1. US and Canadian an occasion on which an institution, such as a school, is open for inspection by the public. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): open day or at-home

2. keep open house to be always ready to provide hospitality

3. US and NZ a house available for inspection by prospective buyers

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

o′pen house′

1. a party or reception during which a person's home is open to visitors.

2. a time during which a school, institution, etc., is open to the public, as for exhibition.

3. a house or apartment for sale or rent that is available for inspection by prospective clients.

[1520–30]

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Noun

open house - an informal party of people with hospitality for all comers

party - a group of people gathered together for pleasure; "she joined the party after dinner"

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References in classic literature ?

To the Chinese such commonplace things as marriage, friendship, and home have an infinitely deeper meaning than can be attached to them by civilisation which practically lives abroad, in the hotels and restaurants and open houses of others, where there is no sanctity of the life within, no shrine set apart for the hidden family re-union, and the cult of the ancestral spirit.

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Norah's customary reserve strengthened into sullen silence -- she sat down in one of the hall chairs and looked out frowningly through the open house door.

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IN THE COURSE of occasional visits to Canada many years since, I became intimately acquainted with some of the principal partners of the great Northwest Fur Company, who at that time lived in genial style at Montreal, and kept almost open house for the stranger.

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The minute after a step traversed the hall; the open house was too tempting for Heathcliff to resist walking in: most likely he supposed that I was inclined to shirk my promise, and so resolved to trust to his own audacity.

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He would keep open house and entertain like a prince.

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They seemed in great poverty; which was no doubt natural, now that rapine was put down, and the chiefs kept no longer an open house; and the roads (even such a wandering, country by--track as the one I followed) were infested with beggars.

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Hall kept open house. The big living room, with its huge fireplace, divans, shelves and tables of books and magazines, was the center of things.

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The Dowager Duchess of Waveney, though she kept open house for members of Parliament, would have drawn the line at monkeys.

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On this ground it was always contrived in the dark seasons, when there was little work to be done, and the hours were long, that several neighbours should keep open house in succession.

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Let me tell you I have store both of rugs and cloaks, and shall not permit the son of my old friend Ulysses to camp down on the deck of a ship--not while I live--nor yet will my sons after me, but they will keep open house as I have done."

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"What!" he said, "not one word of prayer before God's own open house? How can ye hope for His blessing upon the day?"

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'You're not going to keep open house for all the poor of London,' pursued Pancks.