# housing

Pronunciation: US say "HOW-zing" /ˈhaʊzɪŋ/; UK

## Noun

1. Buildings where people live, considered together as a single body.
   - Simple: Houses, apartments, and other places where people live, thought of as a group.
   - _The government pledged to build more housing in rural districts._
   - _Decades of neglect left much of the region's housing in poor condition._
2. The act of providing somewhere for people to live, or of enclosing something within a cover.
   - Simple: The act of giving people a place to live, or of putting something inside a cover.
   - _The council is responsible for the housing of its growing population._
   - _Safe housing of the spare batteries prevents accidental fires._
4. A protective case or covering that encloses a mechanical component.
   - Simple: A hard case that holds and protects a part of a machine.
   - _The engineers sealed the bearing inside an aluminum housing._
   - _Vibration had loosened the gearbox housing over the years._

## Verb

3. Present participle and gerund of house. — present participle and gerund of house
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of house. Use this form for giving people or things a place to stay.
   - _The university is housing first-year students in newly renovated dormitories._
   - _Housing the entire collection safely required a climate-controlled vault._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A recess cut out of one solid piece to receive part of another, such as the end of one timber set into the side of another.
- (noun) An ornamental or military cloth covering a horse's saddle; a saddlecloth, and in the plural a horse's trappings.
- (noun) A recessed space set into a wall to hold or display a statue.
- (noun) The part of a mast or bowsprit that lies beneath the deck or within the hull of a vessel.
- (noun) An attachment fixed to the harness or to the collar of a horse's harness.
- (noun) A small three-stranded tarred line used aboard ship for seizings and similar binding work; a houseline.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 4** — From Middle English "housynge," from "housen" ("to house, shelter, or receive into one's home"), equivalent to "house" plus "-ing." It is related to Scots "housing" and Old Frisian "hūsinge," and can be compared with Dutch "huizing," German "Behausung," and Swedish "inhysing."
**Meaning 3** — Formed from "house" plus the suffix "-ing."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/housing (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).