inn

Pluralinns

Formsinns, inning, inned

1. 1
   for travelersnouncountable

   A place where travelers can get a room, food and drink, traditionally a country hotel or one that serves mainly as a pub; the word also appears in the names of modern hotels and motels.

   After a long day on the road, they took a room at a country inn outside town.

   Coaching inns once stood every few miles along the old post road.

   UsageCommon in names and in country inn or coaching inn; an ordinary city hotel is usually just a hotel.

   Similarhotel, lodge

   Note

   The word began wider than this: Old English inn meant any dwelling, house, chamber or lodging, like Icelandic inni, a home, and only later settled on the house that takes in travelers. Country inn is a long-standing pairing; a traveler in Washington Irving's 1824 tale weighs the miserable lodging and miserable fare of a country inn against snug quarters in a chateau. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • English inn derives from Old English inn, which had the broader meanings dwelling, house, chamber and lodging. en.wiktionary.org
   • The related Icelandic word inni means a home or dwelling. en.wiktionary.org
   • The commercial lodging sense developed after the broader Old English dwelling sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Irving work containing the passage was first published in 1824. archive.org
   • Country inn is an established historical pairing, appearing in Irving's 1824 text. en.wiktionary.org
   • The comparison represents the fictional uncle's thoughts in “The Adventure of My Uncle,” reported by the gentleman telling his story; Irving is the author. gutenberg.org
2. 2
   law collegenouncountable

   One of the London colleges for students of law and barristers, meaning either the society itself or its buildings.

   She joined an Inn of Court in her first year of studying law in London.

   The barristers' chambers look out over the gardens of the Inn.

   UsageWritten with a capital: an Inn of Court, the Inns of Court. Barristers join an Inn.

   Note

   A London barrister belongs to an Inn much as a student belongs to a college, and people speak of joining an Inn rather than enrolling at one. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • A London barrister belongs to an Inn. en.wikipedia.org
3. 3
   town housenoundatedBritishcountable

   The town house of a nobleman or other distinguished person.

   Whenever Parliament sat, the duke left his country estate and lived with his household at his inn on the Strand.

   Servants opened up the earl's inn in London a week before the family arrived from the country.

   Similarresidence, mansion, townhouse

   Note

   Town houses of the great once carried the word in their names, as Gray's Inn did, once the London house of the Grey family, marking where a lord or other notable person lived when in town. It keeps the older idea of a dwelling rather than a house open to paying travelers, and it now reads as dated British usage. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Noblemen's town residences could be called inns. en.wiktionary.org
   • Gray's Inn was formerly the Grey family's London residence and derives its name from that family. en.wikipedia.org
   • In this sense, an inn was where a nobleman or distinguished person resided in town. en.wiktionary.org
   • The residence sense preserves an older meaning of dwelling or house. en.wiktionary.org

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