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hovel

hovel

14 7.1
A small simple house that is dirty and not good to live in
  • noun
  • /ˈhɑvəl/
translation icon : casucha
  • ...it's nothing but a rented hovel.
  • live in hovels
  • smoky hovel
  • little hovel

But people still want to stay on Earth rather than being stuck out on Aun hovel in the colonies.

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Examples

  • What a decrepit hovel!

  • Then what are you doing sitting here in this hovel with Sara and me?

    Fiction book (1995)
  • We're living in a hovel in Menlo Park.

  • Still another showed an ill-clad family sitting in front of a hovel they called home.

    Academic text (2000)
  • There he is, tiny, neglected, malnourished Napoleon, in a room in some hovel in Brownsville.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • You don't have enough equipment to bring these people outta their dang hovels over there.

  • There are still people living in squatter hovels in townships for Africans.

    Academic text (1992)
  • Moonlight passed through the hovel's rickety frame, falling in knifelike triangles across the floor.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Around town, there were scores of government-sponsored apartment complexes—hovels, essentially—but they made ideal base camps.

    Academic text (2007)
  • The family struggled to make a home in the small, dirty hovel they could afford.

Synonyms

hut
vshovel
217 1.0

A small simple building where people live or stay

implies unpleasant, dirty, and poorly constructed housing beyond simple utility
shack
vshovel
131 1.8

A small rough shelter made from wood and metal scraps

emphasizes being dirty and unfit to live in rather than only rough build
shanty
vshovel
22 6.8

A small rough shelter made from old boards and metal

focuses more on filth and unfitness for habitation rather than material source
old hovel
vshovel
7.4

A very small run-down house with broken walls and a damaged roof

is the general idea of a small, dirty, poorly built, unpleasant home
hutch
vshovel
  • UK
6.8

A small, simple shelter where people live, often temporary

denotes a more permanent unpleasant dwelling rather than a short-term shelter

Antonyms

327 3.4

A very large, impressive house often with many rooms and gardens

241 1.0

A large, beautiful house where a king or queen lives

Compounds

7.4

A very small run-down house with broken walls and a damaged roof

How Run-down

slum
77 3.0
shanty
22 6.8
shack
131 1.8
hovel
14 7.1
cottage
171 1.0
home
1.0

Surface Forms

hovel singular
hovels plural

Etymology

The word hovel comes from old northern European words like hovele that meant a 'small shelter' or 'shed'. So a hovel is a tiny, rough, often dirty house that is barely fit to live in.