DCHP-1 Online

snowhouse Arctic

• 1 n. a domed structure built of blocks of hard snow; an Eskimo snowhouse. [See picture at igloo.]

  See also: igloo (def. 1a)  

  • 1771  (1792)  I looked at my traps down the river, and then proceeded to Lyon Head, where I visited my Indian friends in their snowhouse.
  • 1819  The Esquimaux now began to build a snow-house about thirty paces from the beach.
  • 1966  The Eskimos in the area [Boothia Peninsula] . . . stay in tents in the summer and snowhouses in the winter

• 2 n. a building made of snow blocks and intended for communal gatherings.

  See also: dance house  singing house  

  • 1962  This kept up . . . until a large section of the snow house roof caved in from the heat of the gathering.
  • 1964  At Pelly Bay . . . great snow houses are erected and the drummer goes to the middle of a stage. . . .