Chapter Houqua to Howard of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

House-top To cry from the house-top. To proclaim [it] from the house-top. To announce something in the most public manner possible. Jewish houses had flat roofs, which were paved. Here the ancient Jews used to assemble for gossip; here, too, not unfrequently, they slept; and here some of their festivals were held. From the house-tops the rising of the sun was proclaimed, and other public announcements were made.

"That which ye have spoken [whispered] in the ear ... shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." - Luke xii. 3.

House and Home He hath eaten me out of house and home (Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV., ii. 1). It is the complaint of hostess Quickly to the Lord Chief Justice when he asks for "what sum" she had arrested Sir John Falstaff. She explains the phrase by "he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his;" "I am undone by his going."

House of Correction A gaol governed by a keeper. Originally it was a place where vagrants were made to work, and small offenders were kept in ward for the correction of their offences.

House of God (The). Not solely a church, or a temple made with hands, but any place sanctified by God's presence. Thus, Jacob in the wilderness, where he saw the ladder set up leading from earth to heaven, said, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (Gen. xxviii. 17).

House that Jack Built (The). There are numerous similar glomerations. For example the Hebrew parable of The Two Zuzim. The summation runs thus: -
   10. This is Yavah who vanquished
   9. Death which killed
   8. The butcher which slew
   7. The ox which drank
   6. The water which quenched
   5. The fire which burnt
   4. The stick which beat
   3. The dog which worried
   2. The cat which killed
   1. The kid which my father bought for two zuzim.
   (A zuzim was about = a farthing.)

Household Gods Domestic pets, and all those things which help to endear home. The Romans had household gods called pe-na'-tes, who were supposed to preside over their private dwellings. Of these pe-na'-tes some were called lares, the special genii or angels of the family. One was Vest'a, whose office was to preserve domestic unity. Jupiter and Juno were also among the pe-na'-tes. The modern use of the term is a playful adaptation.

"Bearing a nation with all its household gods into exile." Longfellow: Evangeline.

Household Troops Those troops whose special duty it is to attend the sovereign and guard the metropolis. They consist of the 1st and 2nd Life-guards, the Royal Horseguards, and the three regiments of Footguards called the Grenadier, Coldstream, and Scots Fusilier Guards.

Housel To give or receive the Eucharist. (Anglo-Saxon, huslian, to give the husel or host.)

"Children were christened, and men houseled and assoyled through all the land, except such as were in the bill of excommunication by name expressed." - Holinshed: Chronicle.

Houssain (Prince). Brother of Prince Ahmed. He possessed a piece of carpet or tapestry of such wonderful power that anyone had only to sit upon it, end it would transport him in a moment to any place to which he desired to go.

"If Prince Houssain's flying tapestry or Astolpho's hippogriff had been shown, he would have judged them by the ordinary rules, and preferred a well-hung chariot." - Sir Walter Scott.

Houyhnhnms (whinhims). A race of horses endowed with reason, who bear rule over a race of men. Gulliver, in his Travels, tells us what he "saw" among them. (Swift.)

"Nay, would kind Jove my organ so dispose
To hymn harmonious Houyhnhnms through the nose,
I'd call thee Houhnhnm, that high-sounding name;
Thy children's noses all should twang the same."
Pope.

How Do You Do? (See Do.)

Howard A philanthropist. John Howard is immortalised by his efforts to improve the condition of prisoners. "He visited all Europe," says Burke, "not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale