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springhouse

springhouse

1 7.7
A small building over a spring that keeps food cool
  • noun
  • /ˈsprɪŋˌhaʊs/
  • Archaic
: casa de manantial
  • There's a springhouse in the back.

Examples

  • I stepped out of the springhouse.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • And then from the springhouse, a pair of dark-headed boy children emerged.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Where there was a springhouse, there had been a house, once and maybe now.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • I started out of the springhouse and stopped.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • "Was the springhouse broken into last night?"

    Fiction book (1994)
  • After Ada put the milk in the springhouse, she returned to the field, where the fire still burned slowly, falling into ash.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • When I went with Mama to the springhouse, I found crocks, jars, and barrels of preserved foods.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Outbuildings—smokehouse, can house, springhouse, henhouse, corncrib—bordered a space of packed earth like a courtyard.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • In the springhouse, the damp cold felt like heat; as the days lengthened, she had started to feel heat all around, pressing at the core of the chilly winds, locked in each furled leaf.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • In the hot summer months, we keep our drinks cool in the springhouse by the river.

Synonyms

icebox
vsspringhouse
  • Archaic
19 7.9

A container that keeps food cold using blocks of ice without power

is fixed above a natural spring rather than being a portable container

How Cool

icehouse
  • Archaic
2 7.4
refrigerator
294 1.0
root cellar
8 4.3
springhouse
  • Archaic
1 7.7

Surface Forms

springhouse singular
springhouses plural

Morphology

springhouse = spring + house (transparent) = spring + house

The compound denotes a house associated with a spring and the relation is directly inferable from its parts.

Etymology

Springhouse is a simple compound made of spring ('natural water source') and house ('small building'), so it literally means a little building built over a spring. That's why a springhouse was used to keep milk, butter and other food cool before refrigerators.