on the house

1. At the expense of the establishment, as in This hotel serves an afternoon tea that's on the house. This idiom uses house in the sense of “an inn, tavern, or other building serving the public.” [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

When police served a search warrant on the house in February, they found 26 assault-style rifles in one of the bedrooms, he said.

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After my final wager went bust, I pivoted to the bar—where, unfortunately, the drinks were no longer on the house.

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Top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., blamed the senators for “pathetically casting themselves as victims” in a Tuesday statement.

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It was as if you could buy flood insurance on the house in the valley for the same price as flood insurance on the house on the mountaintop.

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“I say to my colleagues in the House all the time, no matter what title they have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader, whip — there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say, ‘I speak for the people of San Francisco,’” she said in the video.

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