housel

American  

[hou-zuhl] / ˈhaʊ zəl /

noun

1. the Eucharist.

2. the act of administering or receiving the Eucharist.

---

verb (used with object)

houseled, houseling, houselled, houselling

1. to administer the Eucharist to.

housel British  

/ ˈhaʊzəl /

noun

1. a medieval name for Eucharist

---

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

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

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

We were wedded out of hand by the priest that had been sent for to housel him, and in our true names.

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

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.

But after the mass and the holy housel every one with great joy returned to his own.

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