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

See Examples For:

halfway house

There is a halfway house, in which Thames would be placed into a so called "special administration regime", or SAR, which is usually a temporary situation until another private sector buyer can be found.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026

In Naiguata, a small coastal town famous for its traditional "dancing devils" festival, Cesar Rendon, 49, a former inmate who lived in the town's halfway house, confides that he "unburdened himself" with Apostol.

From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026

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