hash house
1
7.2
- noun
- /hæʃ haʊs/
- Archaic
:
comedor
- We decided to grab a quick breakfast at the local hash house before heading to work.
Examples
-
After a long day hiking, we enjoyed a hearty meal at the small hash house down the road.
-
Meals you eat in hash houses: 1,000.
-
lt's back to the hash house for me.
-
If you're so delicate, go find yourself another hash house, or do you have to be thrown out of here?
-
The service was slow at the hash house, but the food was cheap and filling.
Synonyms
25
1.0
A small place where people drink coffee and eat light food
16
4.9
A place outside town like a restaurant that serves food, drink, and live music and dancing
1
1.6
A place where people buy and eat meals, like a restaurant or café
A small, rough bar that serves cheap food
How Cheap
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is partly compositional: a learner who knows 'hash' (a fried food) and 'house' (a place or business) can plausibly infer a place that serves hash, so the basic sense 'a food-serving place / diner' is derivable. However, the evaluative nuance 'inexpensive, simple or mediocre restaurant' and the informal/colloquial flavor are not fully predictable from the constituents, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Hash house comes from the cheap dish hash, meat and potatoes chopped together, and house meaning a place to eat. These places served large, cheap meals, so the phrase now means 'an inexpensive restaurant' that serves plain or not very good food.