housel

[ hou-zuhl ]

noun

the Eucharist.
the act of administering or receiving the Eucharist.

verb (used with object),hou·seled, hou·sel·ing or (especially British) hou·selled, hou·sel·ling.

to administer the Eucharist to.

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”

Words Nearby housel

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use housel in a sentence

And in a ladychapel another taking housel all to his own cheek.
Ulysses | James Joyce
For they shrive them and housel them evermore once or twice in the week.
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville | John Mandeville
As he arose from the slab, a bird in housel for the night flew out of the box.
The Prince of India, Volume II | Lew. Wallace
Two clerics in surplice hold the housel cloth to catch any of the sacred elements which might accidentally fall.
Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England | Edward L. Cutts
Let every Christian man strictly keep his Christianity, and go frequently to shrift and housel.
Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England | Edward L. Cutts

British Dictionary definitions for housel

housel

/ (ˈhaʊzəl) /

noun

a medieval name for Eucharist

verb-sels, -selling or -selled or US -sels, -seling or -seled

(tr) to give the Eucharist to (someone)

Origin of housel

Old English hūsl; related to Gothic hunsl sacrifice, Old Norse hūsl

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

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