hovel

Meanings

Plural: hovels

Noun

small crude shelter used as a dwelling
An open shed for sheltering cattle, or protecting produce, etc., from the weather.
A poor cottage; a small, mean house; a hut.
In the manufacture of porcelain, a large, conical brick structure around which the firing kilns are grouped.
(archaic) A Midwestern/Minnesotan slang term used to refer to straitjackets.

Verb

To put in a hovel; to shelter.
To construct a chimney so as to prevent smoking, by making two of the more exposed walls higher than the others, or making an opening on one side near the top.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English hovel, hovil, hovylle, diminutive of *hove, *hof (“structure, building, house”), from Old English hof (“an enclosure, court, dwelling, house”), from Proto-Germanic *hufą (“hill, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“arch, bend, buckle”), equivalent to howf + -el. Compare Middle High German hobel (“cover, lid, covered wagon”). Cognate with Dutch hof (“garden, court”), German Hof (“yard, garden, court, palace”), Icelandic hof (“temple, hall”). Related to hove and hover.

Synonyms

hut, hutch, shack, shanty

Scrabble Score: 11

hovel is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
hovel is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
hovel is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 12

hovel is a valid Words With Friends word