joss house

American  

noun

1. a Chinese temple for idol worship.

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joss house British  

noun

1. a Chinese temple or shrine where an idol or idols are worshipped

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Etymology

Origin of joss house

First recorded in 1765–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

joss house

Harry assented, and to the new Jackson street joss house, the most important Chinese temple of America, they went.

From The Bradys After a Chinese Princess The Yellow Fiends of 'Frisco by Doughty, Francis Worcester

Here there were two secret rooms where there had once been a private joss house conducted by the Chinese "Tong" or guild known as the Brother of the Red Door.

From The Bradys' Chinese Clew The Secrect Dens of Pell Street by Doughty, Francis Worcester

The basement, was a handsome joss house: upstairs was a durbar-hall with glazed verandahs and ebony furniture ranged across the room in four straight lines.

From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Kipling, Rudyard

"You remember what Fu Shan said of his brother's joss house?" he says.

From The Belted Seas by Colton, Arthur Willis

The tea house is but the ante-chamber to a joss house overhead, mendaciously advertised to be "the biggest outside of China," and to the theater proper.

From The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair Their Observations and Triumphs by Stevens, C. M. (Charles McClellan)