Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Hall"

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

2.
(a) The chief room in a castle or manor house, and in
early times the only public room, serving as the place
of gathering for the lord's family with the retainers
and servants, also for cooking and eating. It was
often contrasted with the bower, which was the private
or sleeping apartment.

Full sooty was her bower and eke her hall.
--Chaucer.
Hence, as the entrance from outside was directly into
the hall:
(b) A vestibule, entrance room, etc., in the more
elaborated buildings of later times. Hence:
(c) Any corridor or passage in a building.

3. A name given to many manor houses because the magistrate's
court was held in the hall of his mansion; a chief mansion
house. --Cowell.

4. A college in an English university (at Oxford, an
unendowed college).

5. The apartment in which English university students dine in
common; hence, the dinner itself; as, hall is at six
o'clock.

6. Cleared passageway in a crowd; -- formerly an exclamation.
[Obs.] ``A hall! a hall!'' --B. Jonson.

Syn: Entry; court; passage. See {Vestibule}.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

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