Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web

Hall

- 10 dictionary results

hall

[hawl]
–noun
1. a corridor or passageway in a building.
2. the large entrance room of a house or building; vestibule; lobby.
3. a large room or building for public gatherings; auditorium: convention hall; concert hall.
4. a large building for residence, instruction, or other purposes, at a college or university.
5. a college at a university.
6. (in English colleges)
a. a large room in which the members and students dine.
b. dinner in such a room.
7. British. a mansion or large residence, esp. one on a large estate.
8. British Informal. music hall.
9. the chief room in a medieval castle or similar structure, used for eating, sleeping, and entertaining.
10. the castle, house, or similar structure of a medieval chieftain or noble.
11. Southeastern U.S.: Older Use. the living room or family room of a house.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE heall; c. ON hǫll, G Halle; akin to OE helan to cover, hide, L cēlāre to hide (see conceal )

Hall

[hawl]
–noun
1. A⋅saph [ey-suhf] , 1829–1907, U.S. astronomer: discovered the satellites of Mars.
2. Charles Francis, 1821–71, U.S. Arctic explorer.
3. Charles Martin, 1863–1914, U.S. chemist, metallurgist, and manufacturer.
4. Donald, born 1928, U.S. poet and editor.
5. Granville Stanley, 1846–1924, U.S. psychologist and educator.
6. James Norman, 1887–1951, U.S. novelist.
7. (Marguerite) Rad⋅clyffe [rad-klif] , 1880–1943, English writer.
8. Prince, 1748–1807, U.S. clergyman and abolitionist, born in Barbados: fought at Bunker Hill.
hall   (hôl)   
n.  
  1. A corridor or passageway in a building.
  2. A large entrance room or vestibule in a building; a lobby.
    1. A building for public gatherings or entertainments.
    2. The large room in which such events are held.
    3. A building belonging to a school, college, or university that provides classroom, dormitory, or dining facilities.
    4. A large room in such a building.
    5. The group of students using such a building: The entire hall stayed up late studying.
    6. Chiefly British A meal served in such a building.
    7. The castle or house of a medieval monarch or noble.
    8. The principal room in such a castle or house, used for dining, entertaining, and sleeping.
  3. A building used for the meetings, entertainments, or living quarters of a fraternity, sorority, church, or other social or religious organization.
    1. A building belonging to a school, college, or university that provides classroom, dormitory, or dining facilities.
    2. A large room in such a building.
    3. The group of students using such a building: The entire hall stayed up late studying.
    4. Chiefly British A meal served in such a building.
    5. The castle or house of a medieval monarch or noble.
    6. The principal room in such a castle or house, used for dining, entertaining, and sleeping.
  4. The main house on a landed estate.
    1. The castle or house of a medieval monarch or noble.
    2. The principal room in such a castle or house, used for dining, entertaining, and sleeping.

[Middle English halle, large residence, from Old English heall; see kel-1 in Indo-European roots.]
Word History: The halls of academe and city hall remind us that what we commonly mean by the word hall, "a passageway, an entrance room," represents a shrunken version of what hall once commonly designated. Going back to the Indo-European root *kel-, "to cover," the Old English word heall, ancestor of our hall, referred to "a large place covered by a roof, whether a royal residence, official building, large private residence, or large room in a residence where the public life of the household is carried on." These senses and related ones are still in use, as attested by compounds such as music hall and study hall. Our common use of the term hall for a vestibule or a corridor harks back to medieval times when the hall was the main public room of a residence and people lived much less privately than now. As private rooms in houses took on the importance they have today, the hall lost its function. Hall also had come to mean any large room, and the vestibule was at one time one of the main sitting rooms in a house, but this sort of room has largely disappeared also, and hall has become the designation for the small vestibule of today as well as for an entrance passage or any passageway.
Hall   (hôl)   
American explorer who led three expeditions to the Arctic (1860-1862, 1864-1869, and 1871).
Hall, Granville Stanley 1844-1924.  
American psychologist who established an experimental psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University (1882), founded child psychology, and profoundly influenced educational psychology.
Hall,   (Marguerite)
British writer whose novel The Well of Loneliness (1928) was originally banned as obscene in Great Britain and the United States.

Hall

Hall\, n. [OE. halle, hal, AS. heal, heall; akin to D. hal, OS. & OHG. halla, G. halle, Icel. h["o]lt, and prob. from a root meaning, to hide, conceal, cover. See Hell, Helmet.]

1. A building or room of considerable size and stateliness, used for public purposes; as, Westminster Hall, in London.

2. (a) The chief room in a castle or manor house, and in early times the only public room, serving as the place of gathering for the lord's family with the retainers and servants, also for cooking and eating. It was often contrasted with the bower, which was the private or sleeping apartment.

Full sooty was her bower and eke her hall. --Chaucer. Hence, as the entrance from outside was directly into the hall: (b) A vestibule, entrance room, etc., in the more elaborated buildings of later times. Hence: (c) Any corridor or passage in a building.

3. A name given to many manor houses because the magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion; a chief mansion house. --Cowell.

4. A college in an English university (at Oxford, an unendowed college).

5. The apartment in which English university students dine in common; hence, the dinner itself; as, hall is at six o'clock.

6. Cleared passageway in a crowd; -- formerly an exclamation. [Obs.] "A hall! a hall!" --B. Jonson.

Syn: Entry; court; passage. See Vestibule.
Language Translation for : Hall
Spanish: vestíbulo, entrada,
German: die Diele,
Japanese: 玄関

hall 
O.E. heall "place covered by a roof, spacious roofed residence, temple," from P.Gmc. *khallo "to cover, hide" (cf. O.H.G. halla, Ger. halle, Du. hal, O.N. höll "hall;" O.E. hell, Goth. halja "hell"), from PIE base *kel- "to hide, conceal" (see cell). Sense of "entry, vestibule" evolved 17c., at a time when the doors opened onto the main room of a house. Older sense preserved in town hall, music hall, etc., and in university dormitory names. Hall of Fame first attested 1901, in ref. to Columbia College.

Hall (hôl), Granville Stanley. 1844-1924.

American psychologist who established an experimental psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University (1882), founded child psychology, and profoundly influenced educational psychology.

Hall

(Gr. aule, Luke 22:55; R.V., "court"), the open court or quadrangle belonging to the high priest's house. In Matt. 26:69 and Mark 14:66 this word is incorrectly rendered "palace" in the Authorized Version, but correctly "court" in the Revised Version. In John 10:1,16 it means a "sheep-fold." In Matt. 27:27 and Mark 15:16 (A.V., "common hall;" R.V., "palace") it refers to the proetorium or residence of the Roman governor at Jerusalem. The "porch" in Matt. 26:71 is the entrance-hall or passage leading into the central court, which is open to the sky.

Search another word or see Hall on Thesaurus | Reference