Careful Words

house (n.)

house (v.)

house (adv.)

house (adj.)

He hath eaten me out of house and home.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

  The house appointed for all living.

Old Testament: Job xxx. 23.

  A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure.

Martin F Tupper (1810-1889): Of Education.

  If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

New Testament: Mark iii. 25.

  It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house.

Old Testament: Proverbs xxi. 9.

  Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York,

And all the clouds that loured upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,

Our bruised arms hung up for monuments,

Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,

Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front;

And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds

To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,

He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time

Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,

And that so lamely and unfashionable

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them,—

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to spy my shadow in the sun.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 1.

  Wherever literature consoles sorrow or assuages pain; wherever it brings gladness to eyes which fail with wakefulness and tears, and ache for the dark house and the long sleep,—there is exhibited in its noblest form the immortal influence of Athens.

Thomas B Macaulay (1800-1859): On Mitford's History of Greece. 1824.

Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 1.

I am all the daughters of my father's house,

And all the brothers too.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.

  When a man says, "Get out of my house! what would you have with my wife?" there is no answer to be made.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xliii.

There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:

If the ill spirit have so fair a house,

Good things will strive to dwell with 't.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.

This house is to be let for life or years;

Her rent is sorrow, and her income tears.

Cupid, 't has long stood void; her bills make known,

She must be dearly let, or let alone.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Emblems. Book ii. Emblem 10, Ep. 10.

  Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.

His very foot has music in 't

As he comes up the stairs.

W J Mickle (1734-1788): The Mariner's Wife.

  For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique tutissimum refugium.

Sir Edward Coke (1549-1634): Third Institute. Page 162.

  In my Father's house are many mansions.

New Testament: John xiv. 2.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,—

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

For there's nae luck about the house,

There's nae luck at a';

There's little pleasure in the house

When our gudeman's awa'.

W J Mickle (1734-1788): The Mariner's Wife.

  The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.

Sir Edward Coke (1549-1634): Semayne's Case, 5 Rep. 91.

  It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.

Old Testament: Ecclesiastes vii. 2.

Grac'd as thou art with all the power of words,

So known, so honour'd at the House of Lords.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace. Epistle vi. Book i. To Mr. Murray.

  It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.

Old Testament: Ecclesiastes vii. 2.

  I was wounded in the house of my friends.

Old Testament: Zechariah xiii. 6.

  A day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Old Testament: Psalm lxxxiv. 10.

The great Emathian conqueror bid spare

The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower

Went to the ground.

John Milton (1608-1674): When the Assault was intended to the City.

Wherever God erects a house of prayer,

The Devil always builds a chapel there;

And 't will be found, upon examination,

The latter has the largest congregation.

Daniel Defoe (1663-1731): The True-Born Englishman. Part i. Line 1.

Like a fair house, built on another man's ground.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.

  Men to be of one mind in an house.

Book Of Common Prayer: The Psalter. Psalm lxviii. 6.

  Peace be to this house.

New Testament: Luke x. 5.

You take my house when you do take the prop

That doth sustain my house; you take my life

When you do take the means whereby I live.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Fired that the house rejects him, "'Sdeath! I 'll print it,

And shame the fools."

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 61.

  He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

Old Testament: Job vii. 10; cf. xvi. 22.

  Set thine house in order.

Old Testament: Isaiah xxxviii. 1.

I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,

And hurt my brother.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.

There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:

If the ill spirit have so fair a house,

Good things will strive to dwell with 't.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.

Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 1.

I 've often wish'd that I had clear,

For life, six hundred pounds a year;

A handsome house to lodge a friend;

A river at my garden's end;

A terrace walk, and half a rood

Of land set out to plant a wood.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Imitation of Horace, Book ii. Sat. 6.

When we mean to build,

We first survey the plot, then draw the model;

And when we see the figure of the house,

Then must we rate the cost of the erection.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 3.

You take my house when you do take the prop

That doth sustain my house; you take my life

When you do take the means whereby I live.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.