DCHP-2
ice-house DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
THIS ENTRY MAY CONTAIN OUTDATED INFORMATION, TERMS and EXAMPLES
1 n.
a structure usually having insulated walls and roof, used as a storage place for meat and other perishables, the refrigerant being blocks of ice.
See also: hangard (def. 2)
- 1792 (1911) They use the ice to cool liquors and butter, and the ice houses are used for larders to keep meat.
- 1832 (1953) When we had completed the house, we raised a barn . . . with an ice-house, root house, and summer dairy beneath it. . . .
- 1934 . . . there was always a large ice-house full of ice so that everything brought in could be kept fresh.
- 1963 The southeast and northwest bastions were ice-houses.
2 n.
a domed structure built of blocks of hard snow; an Eskimo snowhouse. (a misnomer, for igloos are made of blocks of snow rather than ice).
See also: igloo (meaning 1a)
- 1857 The remains of two ice houses yet existed, but were rapidly thawing away, under the influence of the heat of the sun.
- 1961 As in years past, Pelly Bay's 125 Eskimos will build an ice house for their Christmas Mass. As children watch, the men tramp out a circle in the snow, then make six igloos of ordinary size. They fill the spaces in between with snow blocks, raising a dome 15 feet high. Then the inside walls are cut away.
- 1792 (1911) They use the ice to cool liquors and butter, and the ice houses are used for larders to keep meat.