housel

American  

[hou-zuhl] / ˈhaʊ zəl /

noun

1. the Eucharist.

2. the act of administering or receiving the Eucharist.

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verb (used with object)

houseled, houseling, houselled, houselling

1. to administer the Eucharist to.

housel British  

/ ˈhaʊzəl /

noun

1. a medieval name for Eucharist

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verb

1. (tr) to give the Eucharist to (someone)

Etymology

Origin of housel

First recorded before 900; Middle English; (noun) Old English hūsl “the Eucharist,” probably originally, “offering”; cognate with Old Norse hūsl, Gothic hunsl “sacrifice, offering”

Example Sentences

One is sustenance of the body; the second, of the soul; the third is the partaking of the holy housel.

From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Aelfric, Abbot of Eynsham

He would not suffer the host to approach the burning city, but took to his bed, turned his face to the tent-wall, and refused alike housel and meat.

From The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay by Hewlett, Maurice Henry

It is the people's wont, after the housel, to go up step by step to the vessel, and taste the heavenly fluid.

From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Aelfric, Abbot of Eynsham

They bathed his face and he gathered strength after a time to say, “A priest!—oh for a priest to shrive and housel me.”

From The Armourer's Prentices by Hennessy, W.J.

She said that he had a fair sweet death through God His goodness with masspriest to be shriven, holy housel and sick men's oil to his limbs.

From Ulysses by Joyce, James