safe house

American  

noun

safe houses plural

1. a dwelling or building whose conventional appearance makes it a safe or inconspicuous place for hiding, taking refuge, or carrying on clandestine activities.

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safe house British  

noun

1. a place used secretly by undercover agents, terrorists, etc, as a meeting place or refuge

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• safe houses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of safe house

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

safe house

Authorities worried that the departure of the player would reveal the location of the remaining six, so they moved them to a new safe house.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026

The government had spent days in secret talks with the players, who were whisked to a safe house after leaving their hotel on the Gold Coast.

From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026

Police assisted the women in leaving their hotel and placed them in a safe house.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2026

He later took shelter in a safe house in Phnom Penh, before eventually returning to China.

From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2026

It’s nowhere near as cool as our real bug-out, though—a hidden safe house our family built deep in the woods in the event of a nuclear attack, or EMP, or any other end-of-the-world scenario.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman