hovel

American  

[huhv-uhl, hov-] / ˈhʌv əl, ˈhɒv- /

noun

• hovels
  plural

1. a small, very humble dwelling house; a wretched hut.

2. any dirty, disorganized dwelling.

3. an open shed, as for sheltering cattle or tools.

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verb (used with object)

hoveled, hoveling, hovelled, hovelling

1. to shelter or lodge as in a hovel.

hovel British  

/ ˈhʌvəl, ˈhɒv- /

noun

1. a ramshackle dwelling place

2. an open shed for livestock, carts, etc

3. the conical building enclosing a kiln

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verb

1. to shelter or be sheltered in a hovel

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• hovels
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hovel

1375–1425; late Middle English hovell, of uncertain origin

Explanation

A hovel is a small shed or dwelling, often messy, cramped, and crudely built, such as a shelter in a refugee camp — or possibly your apartment if you have too much stuff and not enough time to clean. The word hovel was used in the fifteenth century to describe a shed used for animals, and by the seventeenth century the word had taken on its current usage as a way to describe a crude human dwelling — though the connotation of a messiness associated with animals still remains. The word can be used literally to describe something that is a ramshackle shack, but you’ll also hear it used with wry humor to describe a person’s modest living quarters: “Well, I’m off to my hovel to get some sleep.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hovel hovels hoveled hovelling

Eventually they squeezed into a hovel before being discovered by a turncoat cabinet member.

From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2024

But now it is 2023 and we are at Pace, the blue-chip gallery in West Chelsea, where this claustrophobic junkyard hovel contrasts sharply with the pristine white walls surrounding it.

From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2023

"I was left in this crowded backstreet hovel in Halifax, while my sister went off to a rather grand life."

From BBC ● May 14, 2022

“I wanted a hovel, a hut,” she says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2021

There was silence, an almost gentle quiet in Herbie’s gloomy hovel.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

Mark me: In the bombed-out hovels of West Berlin, there was a first drag show to hail the city’s resurrection.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2025

Garcetti has acknowledged that he became the public face of homelessness, with the attendant images of sidewalks and underpasses crowded with filthy tents and cardboard hovels.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2022

The brothers also disliked the fact that bookmakers' shops looked like "hovels".

From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2021

Whole families were crammed into one-room cellars, hovels, and cheap apartments.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

First a house with no damage, next a house still bearing black streaks of soot and smoke, then a field of ruin, with makeshift hovels crafted from tent, brick, and scorched timbers.

From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson

The poet or philosopher, hoveled in penury, without books or scientific instruments, with spare meals and gloomy forebodings, never creates his brightest gem, nor solves his profoundest problem.

From Monks, Popes, and their Political Intrigues by John Alberger

The tug86 had done her work of saving nobly and well, and had performed it at a time when the hovelling smacks could have done nothing at all.

From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 2 by Frederick Whymper

Meantime the crew of the hovelling lugger are in equal, if not greater, danger.

From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 2 by Frederick Whymper

The hovelling lugger has generally a crew of ten men, and these receive no regular pay.

From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 2 by Frederick Whymper

Related Words

• cottage
• hut
• lean-to
• shack
• shanty