host

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One who receives or entertains guests in a social or official capacity.
2. n. A person who manages an inn or hotel.
3. n. One that furnishes facilities and resources for a function or event: the city chosen as host for the Olympic Games.
4. n. The emcee or interviewer on a radio or television program.
5. n. Biology The animal or plant on which or in which another organism lives.
6. n. Medicine The recipient of a transplanted tissue or organ.
7. n. Computer Science A computer containing data or programs that another computer can access by means of a network or modem.
8. v. Usage Problem To serve as host to or at: "the garden party he had hosted last spring” ( Saturday Review).
9. n. An army.
10. n. A great number; a multitude. See Synonyms at multitude.
11. n. Ecclesiastical The consecrated bread or wafer of the Eucharist.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An army; a multitude of men organized for war.
2. n. Any great number or multitude.
3. To assemble or move as an army.
4. n. One who receives and entertains another in his own house, whether gratuitously or for pay; an entertainer; specifically, the landlord of a public house or inn: the correlative of guest.
5. n. An animal or a plant in relation to a parasite habitually dwelling in or upon it. The correlative term, in either case, is guest. See commensal, guest, inquiline, parasite, hyperparasite. In botany the term is used chiefly with reference to parasitic fungi, such as Uredineœ, Ustilagineœ, Erysipheœ, etc. Some species of fungi are confined to a single host, some are found on a number of related plants, while others pass through the different stages of their development on very unlike hosts, as, for example, the heterœcious rusts. The term is also applied to the plants upon which the dodder (Cuscuta), the mistletoe (Viscum, Phoradendron), and others are parasitic.
6. n. In zoölogy the term is a very general and comprehensive one, since almost all animals are infested, or liable to infestation, by parasites of some kind; and some parasites are themselves hosts of others.
7. n. In mineralogy, a mineral which incloses another.
8. n. One who is entertained by another as his guest; a guest.
9. n. An inn; a lodging.
10. To lodge, as at an inn; receive entertainment; be a guest.
11. To give entertainment to; receive as a guest.
12. n. An offering; a sacrifice.
13. n. In the Western Ch.: The sacramental victim in the eucharist; Christ offered under the species of bread and wine, or under either species separately. According to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, not only is Christ as both God and Man in the sacrament of the eucharist and in every part of it, but the substances of bread and wine cease to exist after consecration. The outward acts of adoration are therefore not directed to bread and wine, but only to Christ; and the sacrament is accordingly to be worshiped with latria, the worship due to God only.
14. n. One of the pieces of bread used for consecration in the mass or eucharist; au altar-bread, oblate, or wafer. It is unleavened, small, thin, flat, circular, and generally stamped with a cross, IHS., the figure of the crucified Christ, or the Agnus Dei. The word is used both of the unconsecrated bread and of the sacrament under the form of bread. See altar-bread, oblate.
15. To administer the sacrament to.
16. n. Same as hoast.

Wiktionary

1. n. A multitude of people arrayed as an army; used also in religious senses, as: Heavenly host (of angels)
2. n. A large number of items; a large inventory.
3. n. Catholicism The consecrated bread or wafer of the Eucharist.
4. n. A person who allows a guest, particularly into the host’s home.
5. n. A person or organization responsible for running an event.
6. n. A moderator or master of ceremonies for a performance.
7. n. computing, Internet, Unix Any computer attached to a network.
8. n. computing, networking A computer or software component that provides services.
9. n. biology A cell or organism which harbors another organism or biological entity, usually a parasite.
10. n. evolutionism, genetics An organism bearing certain genetic material.
11. n. Consecrated bread such as that used in the Christian ceremony of the Eucharist.
12. v. To perform the role of a host.
13. v. obsolete, intransitive To lodge at an inn.
14. v. computing, Internet To run software made available to a remote user or process.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (R. C. Ch.) The consecrated wafer, believed to be the body of Christ, which in the Mass is offered as a sacrifice; also, the bread before consecration.
2. n. An army; a number of men gathered for war.
3. n. Any great number or multitude; a throng.
4. n. One who receives or entertains another, whether gratuitously or for compensation; one from whom another receives food, lodging, or entertainment; a landlord.
5. n. (Biol.) Any animal or plant affording lodgment or subsistence to a parasitic or commensal organism. .
6. v. obsolete To give entertainment to.
7. v. obsolete To lodge at an inn; to take up entertainment.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a vast multitude
2. v. be the host of or for
3. n. an animal or plant that nourishes and supports a parasite; it does not benefit and is often harmed by the association
4. n. the owner or manager of an inn
5. n. (computer science) a computer that provides client stations with access to files and printers as shared resources to a computer network
6. n. (medicine) recipient of transplanted tissue or organ from a donor
7. n. any organization that provides resources and facilities for a function or event
8. n. a person who acts as host at formal occasions (makes an introductory speech and introduces other speakers)
9. n. archaic terms for army
10. n. a person who invites guests to a social event (such as a party in his or her own home) and who is responsible for them while they are there
11. n. a technical name for the bread used in the service of Mass or Holy Communion