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Meaning of HOME in English

I. home 1 S1 W1 /həʊm $ hoʊm/ BrE AmE noun

[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ homeless , ↑ homely , ↑ homeward ; noun : ↑ home , ↑ homelessness ; adverb : ↑ home , HOMEWARDS ; verb : ↑ home ]

[ Language: Old English ; Origin: ham 'village, home' ]

1 . PLACE WHERE YOU LIVE [uncountable and countable] the house, apartment, or place where you live:

They have a beautiful home in California.

Good luck in your new home!

at home

Last night we stayed at home and watched TV.

away from home

He was spending more and more time away from home.

work from/at home (=do your work at home instead of at a company office)

A family of birds made their home (=started living) under the roof.

2 . FAMILY [uncountable and countable] the place where a child lived with his or her family:

Jack left home when he was 16.

Were you still living at home (=with your parents) ?

Carrie moved out of the family home a year ago.

3 . WHERE YOU CAME FROM/BELONG [uncountable and countable] the place where you came from or where you usually live, especially when this is the place where you feel happy and comfortable:

She was born in Italy, but she’s made Charleston her home.

back home

The folks back home don’t really understand what life is like here.

4 . YOUR COUNTRY [uncountable] the country where you live, as opposed to foreign countries

at home

auto sales at home and abroad

back home

He’s been travelling, but he’s kept up with what’s going on back home.

5 . be/feel at home

a) to feel comfortable in a place or with a person

be/feel at home in/with

I’m already feeling at home in the new apartment.

After a while we began to feel at home with each other.

b) to feel happy or confident about doing or using something

be/feel at home with/in

Practise using the video until you feel quite at home with it.

6 . PROPERTY [countable] a house, apartment etc considered as property which you can buy or sell:

Attractive modern homes for sale.

7 . FOR TAKING CARE OF SOMEBODY [countable] a place where people who are very old or sick, or children who have no family, are looked after:

an old people’s home

I could never put Dad into a home.

⇨ CHILDREN’S HOME , ↑ nursing home , ↑ rest home

8 . make yourself at home spoken used to tell someone who is visiting you that they should relax:

Sit down and make yourself at home.

9 . make somebody feel at home to make someone feel relaxed by being friendly towards them:

We like to make our customers feel at home.

10 . the home of something

a) the place where something was first discovered, made, or developed:

America is the home of baseball.

b) the place where a plant or animal grows or lives:

India is the home of elephants and tigers.

11 . SPORTS TEAM at home if a sports team plays at home, they play at their own sports field OPP away

at home to

Birmingham Bullets are at home to Kingston.

12 . home from home British English , home away from home American English a place that you think is as pleasant and comfortable as your own house

13 . home sweet home used to say how nice it is to be in your own home

14 . dogs’/cats’ home British English a place where animals with no owners are looked after

15 . find a home for something British English to find a place where something can be kept:

Can you find a home for the piano?

16 . what’s that when it’s at home? British English spoken used humorously to ask what a long or unusual word means

17 . GAMES [uncountable] a place in some games or sports which a player must try to reach in order to win a point

⇨ ↑ home plate , ↑ home run

• • •

COLLOCATIONS (for Meanings 1 & 2)

■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + home

▪ a secure/stable home (=a caring family without a lot of changes)

He had grown up in a stable home.

▪ a happy home (=a happy family)

We had a happy home.

▪ a broken home (=a family in which the parents have separated)

Many of the youngsters came from broken homes.

▪ the family home (=where a family lives)

The house was once the family home of the O'Dare family.

▪ the marital home (=where a husband and wife live)

He left the marital home to move in with his lover.

▪ sb’s childhood/boyhood etc home (=where you lived as a child)

I had not been back to my childhood home for ten years.

▪ a permanent/temporary home

Flood victims were offered temporary homes.

■ verbs

▪ live at home (=live with your parents)

More people in their twenties are still living at home because housing is so expensive.

▪ leave home (=stop living with your parents at home)

Lisa had left home at age 16.

▪ work from/at home (=do your work at home instead of at an office)

I work at home three days a week.

• • •

THESAURUS

▪ home the house, apartment, or place where you live:

More and more people are working from home.

|

It was past midnight by the time I got home.

▪ house a building that someone lives in, especially a building intended for one person, couple, or family:

Shall we meet at your house?

|

Have you seen Dave’s new house – it’s huge!

▪ place spoken informal the house, apartment, or room where someone lives:

We went to Sara’s place after the movie.

|

He’s just bought a fantastic place right by the sea.

▪ residence formal the house or apartment where someone lives, especially a large or official one:

The Prime Minister’s official residence is 10 Downing Street.

|

His wife transferred her main residence to Spain.

▪ holiday home British English , vacation home American English a house that someone owns by the sea, in the mountains etc, where they go for their holidays:

They bought a luxury holiday home in Spain.

II. home 2 S1 W1 BrE AmE adverb

[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ homeless , ↑ homely , ↑ homeward ; noun : ↑ home , ↑ homelessness ; adverb : ↑ home , HOMEWARDS ; verb : ↑ home ]

1 . to or at the place where you live:

Is Sue home from work yet?

bring/take somebody/something home

They brought the baby home from the hospital on Friday.

We stayed home last night.

I’m going home now. See you tomorrow.

come/get/reach etc home (=arrive at your home)

It was midnight by the time we got home.

What time are you coming home?

► Do not use a preposition such as ‘at’ or ‘to’ before home when it is an adverb : Then we went home (NOT went at home). | He returned home (NOT returned to home).

2 . take home £120 per week/$600 a month etc to earn a certain amount of money after tax has been taken off:

The average worker takes home around $300 a week.

3 . hit/drive/hammer etc something home

a) to make sure that someone understands what you mean by saying it in an extremely direct and determined way:

We really need to drive this message home.

b) to hit or push something firmly into the correct position

4 . bring something home to somebody/come home to somebody to make you realize how serious, difficult, or dangerous something is:

The episode has brought home to me the pointlessness of this war.

5 . hit/strike home if a remark, situation, or experience hits home, it makes you realize how serious, difficult, or dangerous something is:

She could see that her remark had hit home.

6 . be home and dry British English informal to have succeeded in doing something

7 . be home free American English informal to have succeeded in doing the most difficult part of something:

If I last five years with no symptoms, I’ll be home free.

⇨ close to home at ↑ close 2 (19)

III. home 3 BrE AmE adjective [only before noun]

1 . relating to or belonging to your home or family

home address/number (=the address or telephone number of your house)

These children need a proper home life.

2 . done at home or intended for use in a home:

good old-fashioned home cooking

a home computer

3 . played or playing at a team’s own sports field, rather than an opponent’s field

home team/game/crowd/club etc

The home team took the lead after 25 minutes.

4 . relating to a particular country, as opposed to foreign countries SYN domestic :

The meat was destined for the home market.

IV. home 4 BrE AmE verb

[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ homeless , ↑ homely , ↑ homeward ; noun : ↑ home , ↑ homelessness ; adverb : ↑ home , HOMEWARDS ; verb : ↑ home ]

home in on something phrasal verb

1 . to aim exactly at an object or place and move directly to it:

The bat can home in on insects using a kind of ‘radar’.

2 . to direct your efforts or attention towards a particular fault or problem:

He homed in on the one weak link in the argument.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.