Hearth (härth), n. [OE. harthe, herth, herthe, AS. heorð; akin to D. haard, heerd, Sw. härd, G. herd; cf. Goth. haúri a coal, Icel. hyrr embers, and L. cremare to burn.]
1. The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.
[1913 Webster]
There was a fire on the hearth burning before him. Jer. xxxvi. 22.
[1913 Webster]
Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths unswept.
There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.
[1913 Webster]
Household talk and phrases of the hearth. Tennyson.
3. (Metal. & Manuf.) The floor of a furnace, on which the material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a melting furnace, into which the melted material settles; as, “an open-hearth smelting furnace”.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
Hearth ends (Metal.), fragments of lead ore ejected from the furnace by the blast. -- Hearth money, Hearth penny [AS. heorðpening], a tax formerly laid in England on hearths, each hearth (in all houses paying the church and poor rates) being taxed at two shillings; -- called also chimney money, etc.
[1913 Webster]
He had been importuned by the common people to relieve them from the . . . burden of the hearth money. Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]