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Glite Dictionary
🏠 A home stay 🏠 To care for a home
to housesit

to housesit

1 3.7
To stay in and take care of someone's home while they are away
  • verb
  • /ˈhaʊsˌsɪt/
translation icon : cuidar la casa
  • - Ian's gonna housesit for us.

Examples

  • I housesit for my sister all the time, it's not like I claim that I own her house.

    Starsky & Hutch (2004)

  • Eh, I'd like to help you out, but I can't housesit for you, especially with the power out.

    Corner Gas: The Movie (2014)

  • They live here, and I housesit for them when they go to Nepal, sometimes.

    Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

  • The former girlfriend had also been hired to housesit for the Patz family over that Memorial Day weekend and had come by the loft to get a set of keys the day the boy disappeared.

    Blog text (18)

  • Can you please housesit for me while I am on vacation next month?

  • She decided to housesit for her friends during their trip to Europe.

  • I usually housesit whenever my neighbors go out of town for the weekend.

How Responsible

to live in
194 3.7
to housesit
1 3.7
to stay over
  • Informal
70 3.0

Surface Forms

housesit infinitive
housesitting present participle
housesits third person singular
housesat past
housesat past participle

Morphology

housesit = house + sit (semi-transparent) = house + sit

The word is a clear compound of 'house' and 'sit', but the conventional meaning 'stay in a home while caring for it' is a specialized extension rather than a literal interpretation.

Etymology

The verb housesit comes from house + sit, much like babysit, with 'sit' meaning 'stay and look after'. To housesit is to 'stay' in someone's home and care for it while they are away.