hearth
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (3)
- an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built“the fireplace was so large you could walk inside it”“he laid a fire in the hearth and lit it”“the hearth was black with the charcoal of many fires”Synonyms: fireplaceopen fireplaceType of recess, nicheKinds firePart of chimneyParts mantel, fireside, water back, fire iron, hearthstone
- home symbolized as a part of the fireplace“driven from hearth and home”“fighting in defense of their firesides”Synonyms: firesideType of dwelling, homePart of fireplace, open fireplace
- an area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out into a room)“they sat on the hearth and warmed themselves before the fire”Synonyms: firesideType of area, country
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: OE. harthe, herth, herthe, AS. heorð; akin to D. haard, heerd, Sw. härd, G. herd; cf. Goth. haúri a coal, Icel. hyrr embers, and L. cremare to burn.
1. The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.
There was a fire on the hearth burning before him.— Jer. xxxvi. 22.
Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths unswept. There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry.— William Shakespeare
2. The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.
Household talk and phrases of the hearth.— Alfred Tennyson
3. Metal. & Manuf. The floor of a furnace, on which the material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a melting furnace, into which the melted material settles; as, an open-hearth smelting furnace.
Hearth ends Metallurgy, fragments of lead ore ejected from the furnace by the blast. — Hearth money, Hearth penny , a tax formerly laid in England on hearths, each hearth (in all houses paying the church and poor rates) being taxed at two shillings; — called also chimney money, etc.
He had been importuned by the common people to relieve them from the... burden of the hearth money.— Thomas Babington Macaulay
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: +PJC