HEARTH • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Hearth

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/hɑrθ/ Listen

noun

Hearth n.

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. "There was a fire on the hearth burning before him." "Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths unswept. There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry."

2.

The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside. "Household talk and phrases of the hearth."

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.

Hearth ends (Metal.), fragments of lead ore ejected from the furnace by the blast.

Hearth money, Hearth penny, 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. "He had been importuned by the common people to relieve them from the... burden of the hearth money."

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Etymology of 'Hearth'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Hearth" Quotes from Famous Books

... having sold out his farm to good advantage. He then paid his rent, the only debt he owed; and, having taken a passage to New South Wales for himself and Honor, they departed with melancholy satisfaction to seek that son without whose society they found their desolate hearth gloomier than the ...

— Fardorougha, The Miser - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... remind me of the kindliness of the Celtic population of another and far-off land. I like the sound of the Irish tongue, which is spoken all around me. I feel quite at home by the peat fire piled up on the hearth. The house where I am staying is that of a farmer of the better class. A low thatched house divided into a but and a ben. The kitchen end has the bare rafters, black and shining with concentrated ...

— The Letters of "Norah" on her Tour Through Ireland • Margaret Dixon McDougall

... any other government against which treason was so easy, and could defend itself by such plausible arguments, as against that of the United States. The anomaly of two allegiances (of which that of the State comes nearest home to a man's feelings, and includes the altar and the hearth, while the General Government claims his devotion only to an airy mode of law, and has no symbol but a flag) is exceedingly mischievous in this point of view; for it has converted crowds of honest people into traitors, who seem to themselves not merely innocent ...

— Sketches and Studies • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... one comer of the room, is a small box of earth in which several stones are imbedded. This constitutes the hearth, about which is found a miscellany of pots, jars, and other kitchen vessels. The smoke finds its way out through a small opening at each end of the roof, or through the narrow space under the eaves. There is no recognized arrangement of the room. ...

— The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao - The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition • Fay-Cooper Cole

... deck, then chained there. Civilization, tricked fool, they say has need of such. You serve as the dogs of Eastern towns. But at least, it seems to me, we need not spit on you. Home to your kennel! Perchance, if the Gods be kind, they may send you dreams of a cleanly hearth, where you lie with a silver collar ...

— The Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow • Jerome K. Jerome

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