| Library / English Dictionary |
HEARTH
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built
Example:
the hearth was black with the charcoal of many fires
Synonyms:
fireplace; hearth; open fireplace
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("hearth" is a kind of...):
niche; recess (an enclosure that is set back or indented)
Meronyms (parts of "hearth"):
fire iron (metal fireside implements)
fireside; hearth (home symbolized as a part of the fireplace)
hearthstone (a stone that forms a hearth)
chimneypiece; mantel; mantelpiece; mantle; mantlepiece (shelf that projects from wall above fireplace)
water back (water heater consisting of a tank or pipes set at the back of a fireplace or in the firebox of a stove)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hearth"):
fire (a fireplace in which a relatively small fire is burning)
Holonyms ("hearth" is a part of...):
chimney (a vertical flue that provides a path through which smoke from a fire is carried away through the wall or roof of a building)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Home symbolized as a part of the fireplace
Example:
fighting in defense of their firesides
Synonyms:
fireside; hearth
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("hearth" is a kind of...):
abode; domicile; dwelling; dwelling house; habitation; home (housing that someone is living in)
Domain usage:
synecdoche (substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versa)
Holonyms ("hearth" is a part of...):
fireplace; hearth; open fireplace (an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out into a room)
Example:
they sat on the hearth and warmed themselves before the fire
Synonyms:
fireside; hearth
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Hypernyms ("hearth" is a kind of...):
area; country (a particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography))
Context examples:
I came into this room, and the sight of the empty chair and fireless hearth chilled me.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The clock struck six and, having swept up the hearth, Beth put a pair of slippers down to warm.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I sat in a chair on the other side of the hearth, lost in unhappy reflections, and looking at the fire too, and sometimes at her.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
When he arose in the morning, all the work was already done, the room was swept, the table and benches cleaned, the fire in the hearth was lighted, and the water was fetched, and at noon, when he came home, the table was laid, and a good dinner served.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Presently after, he sat on one side of his own hearth, with Mr. Guest, his head clerk, upon the other, and midway between, at a nicely calculated distance from the fire, a bottle of a particular old wine that had long dwelt unsunned in the foundations of his house.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
At the end of this he threw open a heavy door, and I rejoiced to see within a well-lit room in which a table was spread for supper, and on whose mighty hearth a great fire of logs, freshly replenished, flamed and flared.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Bessie sat on the hearth, nursing her last-born, and Robert and his sister played quietly in a corner.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Hannah had left a pan of bread to rise, Meg had worked it up early, set it on the hearth for a second rising, and forgotten it.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I sat down in a great chair upon the hearth to meditate on my happiness; and had enjoyed the contemplation of it for some time, when I found a likeness of Miss Dartle looking eagerly at me from above the chimney-piece.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
In the evening when she was tired, she had no bed to lie down on, but was made to lie by the hearth among the ashes; and as this, of course, made her always dusty and dirty, they called her Ashputtel.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
