halfway house

American  

noun

1. an inn or stopping place situated approximately midway between two places on a road.

2. any place considered as midway in a course.

3. 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.

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halfway house British  

noun

1. a place to rest midway on a journey

2. the halfway point in any progression

3. a centre or hostel designed to facilitate the readjustment to private life of released prisoners, mental patients, etc

4. a compromise

   a halfway house between fixed and floating exchange rates

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Etymology

Origin of halfway house

First recorded in 1685–95

Example Sentences

This could be seen as a halfway house, whereby the independent disciplinary commission dodges the nuclear option of banishing Southampton from the play-offs but still applies a sporting sanction.

From BBC • May 13, 2026

Marquez remembers when a home on 115th Street was being considered for a halfway house a few years back.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 22, 2025

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

He told her about the advice the counselor at the halfway house had given to him.

From "Small Steps" by Louis Sachar