/chahr"teuhr hows'/ , n. , pl. Charterhouses /-how'ziz/ .
1. a Carthusian monastery.
2. the hospital and charitable institution founded in London, in 1611, on the site of a Carthusian monastery.
3. the public school into which this hospital was converted.
4. the modern heir of this school, now located in Surrey.
[ 1400-50; late ME chartrouse (taken as CHARTER + HOUSE), after Chatrousse, village in Dauphiné near which the order was founded; see CARTHUSIAN, whence the first r of the AF word ]