housel
Americannoun
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the Eucharist.
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the act of administering or receiving the Eucharist.
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Low-latched in leaf-light housel his too huge godhead.
From Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Now First Published by Bridges, Robert Seymour
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 Yonge, Charlotte Mary
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
Spenser seems here to have in mind, not the Christian housel or Eucharist, but the Roman marriage rites with their symbolic fire and water.
From Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Spenser, Edmund
For they shrive them and housel them evermore once or twice in the week.
From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir
I make my vow to God and all the saints I will not rest, nor houseled be, nor shriven, Until our realm be free from Danish foe!
From Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race by Ebbutt, M. I. (Maud Isabel)
So when he was houseled and anealed, and had all that a Christian man ought to have, he prayed the Bishop that his fellows might bear his body to Joyous Gard.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 2 by Malory, Thomas, Sir
To be houseled: to receive the holy sacrament; from Anglo- Saxon, "husel;" Latin, "hostia," or "hostiola," the host.
From The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems by Purves, D. Laing
The holy priest Justin celebrated mass to and houseled them all.
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
So when he was houseled and eneled, and had all that a Christian man ought to have, he prayed the bishop that his fellows might bear his body unto Joyous Gard.
From Northumberland Yesterday and To-day by Terry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
They are usually covered with white wrappings, which, to the casual visitor, have the appearance of decorators' dust-cloths, but are really "houseling linen."
From Wanderings in Wessex An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter by Holmes, Edric
The use of the "houseling linen" dates back to very early times.
From Bell's Cathedrals: Wimborne Minster and Christchurch Priory A Short History of Their Foundation and a Description of Their Buildings by Perkins, Thomas, Rev.
Up to 1852 there was a rail on the top step, at the entrance of the presbytery, on which the houseling linen hung.
From Bell's Cathedrals: Wimborne Minster and Christchurch Priory A Short History of Their Foundation and a Description of Their Buildings by Perkins, Thomas, Rev.
And as she was confessed and houselled then she died.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 2 by Malory, Thomas, Sir
He made his will, a generous and charitable one, confessed his sins, was houselled and anhealed, and died on Passion Tuesday, April 6th.
From Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England by Marson, Charles L. (Charles Latimer)
Thereat his voice failed him indeed, and he lay still; but he died not, till presently the priest came to him, and, as he might, houselled him: then he departed.
From Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair by Morris, William
Then Perceval rode forward till it was night; but never could he get sight of castle or knight's hold or hermit's cell where he could be houselled for the night.
From King Arthur's Knights The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls by Gilbert, Henry
Thereafter the priest houselled the King, and he received his Creator, and a little while after his soul departed.
From Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair by Morris, William
So, also, we find the term houselling cloth, meaning a large cloth spread before the people while receiving.
From The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia by Miller, William James
The King sent for one of his own chaplains that made the squire confess and do his houselling right well.
From The High History of the Holy Graal by Evans, Sebastian
Jean withdrew from the houselling cloth, wondering to be just the same as ever and already disillusioned.
From The Aspirations of Jean Servien by France, Anatole
The three ministers had communicated by now; and there was a rustle and clatter of feet as the empty seats in front, hung with houselling cloths, began to be filled.
From By What Authority? by Benson, Robert Hugh
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.
