GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 5 definitions

1.       
   Host , n. [LL. hostia sacrifice, victim, from hostire to strike.] (R. C. Ch.) The consecrated wafer, believed to be the body of Christ, which in the Mass is offered as a sacrifice; also, the bread before consecration.
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   ☞ In the Latin Vulgate the word was applied to the Savior as being an offering for the sins of men.
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2.       
   Host , n. [OE. host, ost, OF. host, ost, fr. L. hostis enemy, LL., army. See Guest, and cf. Host a landlord.]
   An army; a number of men gathered for war.
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   A host so great as covered all the field.
   Dryden.
   
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   Any great number or multitude; a throng.
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   And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.
   Luke ii. 13.
   
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   All at once I saw a crowd,
   A host, of golden daffodils.
   Wordsworth.
   
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3.       
   Host , n. [OE. host, ost, OF. hoste, oste, F. hôte, from L. hospes a stranger who is treated as a guest, he who treats another as his guest, a hostl prob. fr. hostis stranger, enemy (akin to E. guest a visitor) + potis able; akin to Skr. pati master, lord. See Host an army, Possible, and cf. Hospitable, Hotel.]
   One who receives or entertains another, whether gratuitously or for compensation; one from whom another receives food, lodging, or entertainment; a landlord. Chaucer. “Fair host and Earl.” Tennyson.
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   Time is like a fashionable host,
   That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand.
   Shak.
   
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   (Biol.) Any animal or plant affording lodgment or subsistence to a parasitic or commensal organism. Thus a tree is a host of an air plant growing upon it.
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
         
       

4.       
   Host, v. t. To give entertainment to. [Obs.]
   Spenser.
   
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5.       
   Host, v. i. To lodge at an inn; to take up entertainment. [Obs.] “Where you shall host.” 
   Shak.
   
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