noun
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a building above or beside an entrance gate to a city, university, etc, often housing a porter or guard, or (formerly) used as a fortification
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a small house at the entrance to the grounds of a country mansion
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a structure that houses the controls operating lock gates or dam sluices
Etymology
Origin of gatehouse
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at gate 1, house
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Eastlands did not yet know it, but the gatehouse had been razed by the flood.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026
Joel has already sold the gatehouse of the abode for $7 million and is now looking to offload the main property, which is known as MiddleSea.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 9, 2025
In the 1960s, when Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, lived on the peninsula in a Spanish-style gatehouse, Didion observed the “slump of the hill” making its strange descent into the ocean.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2025
It was subsequently expanded with a gatehouse, reception hall and display room by Norman Shaw in the following decade.
From BBC • May 29, 2024
Inside the gatehouse study the two companions were once more at work, trying to break the code of the Great Hall rhyme.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
