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

This has purloined the wages of the labourer; it has reduced him by degrees to housel with the spider and the bat, and to feed with the pig.

From Cottage Economy To Which Is Added The Poor Man's Friend by Cobbett, William

The little artist was standing at the open door of the housel "At last!" he exclaimed.

From The Children of the World by Heyse, Paul

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

“For the winning of a soul from Purgatory that hath passed thither without housel ne chrism.”

From The White Rose of Langley A Story of the Olden Time by Holt, Emily Sarah

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