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glasshouse

American  
[glas-hous, glahs-] / ˈglæsˌhaʊs, ˈglɑs- /

noun

plural

glasshouses
  1. a glassworks.

  2. Chiefly British. a green-house.

  3. British Informal. a military prison.


glasshouse British  
/ ˈɡlɑːsˌhaʊs /

noun

  1. a glass building, esp a greenhouse, used for growing plants in protected or controlled conditions

  2. obsolete a military detention centre

  3. another word for glassworks

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of glasshouse

First recorded in 1350–1400, glasshouse is from Middle English glas hous. See glass, 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.

They added this yeast to bee diets and tested it over three months in controlled glasshouse experiments.

From Science Daily • Mar. 27, 2026

"We then engineered these into crops, and if that results in an improvement in the glasshouse, then we take it to our experimental farm and test it in a real-world environment," says Prof Long.

From BBC • Sep. 18, 2023

“Santa Maria will be one of the last growing areas in California before everything probably goes glasshouse or indoor in places like Detroit or Chicago or New Jersey,” Harrison said.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 26, 2022

In the early 1990s, a group of eight hippies sealed themselves into a glasshouse dome in the Arizona desert, intending to replicate Earth’s ecosystems and live self-sufficiently.

From The Guardian • Jul. 13, 2020

They have already begun to build a glasshouse a little way from our fort, with a large furnace for glassmaking.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone