halfway house
Americannoun
-
an inn or stopping place situated approximately midway between two places on a road.
-
any place considered as midway in a course.
-
a residence for former mental patients, convicts, or recovering drug users or alcoholics that serves as a transitional environment between confinement and the return to society.
noun
-
a place to rest midway on a journey
-
the halfway point in any progression
-
a centre or hostel designed to facilitate the readjustment to private life of released prisoners, mental patients, etc
-
a compromise
a halfway house between fixed and floating exchange rates
Etymology
Origin of halfway house
First recorded in 1685–95
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.
But Ali says: "The current halfway house becomes harder to justify as usage grows."
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
After his release from jail, Brueckner was taken to a halfway house in Neumuenster, the magazine said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
The 2007 Second Chance Act allows people to transition from prisons to the community, serving up to the final 12 months of their sentence in a halfway house.
From Slate ● Jul. 5, 2025
Through his cousin Sony, who resides in a nearby halfway house and obsesses about the Civil War, Hai is hired by Home Market, where he scrubs counters and toilets and works the cash register.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2025
In the United States, gangs have traditionally been a sort of halfway house for recent immigrants.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
