Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A place where poultry rest at night.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A place where hens roost.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A place used by hens for roosting.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a roost for hens at night

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hen +‎ roost

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Examples

  • The man who lost his life against a henroost, is in the same pickle with him who lost his life against a fortified place of the first order.

    Virginibus Puerisque and other papers 2005

  • Upset the henroost, devoured what was left of the cow, dug up the verdurous three acres, and till two o'clock in the morning harried the Commissioners under the Scotch University Act. _Business done_.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 102, May 21, 1892 Various

  • As I write, the bilious countenance of a culprit is peeping through the iron grates of a window, who, may be, is atoning for having invaded a henroost or bagged an unsuspecting pig.

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 6, December 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various

  • The cold gray light of early dawn had given place to saffron, and the first drowsy challenge from the henroost had been shrilly answered from far and near, when old man Jerry awoke from his nap in the chimney corner, and, finding himself chilled through all his old, rheumatic bones, bent over the dying embers, pushed together the blackened and half-burned "chunks," and blew them until they glowed.

    Plantation Sketches Margaret Devereux

  • Arrived at the henroost (your neighbor's, not your own), you light a match and hold it under first one and then another pullet's nose until they are willing to go into that bag without making any trouble about it.

    Sketches New And Old Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 1922

  • Arrived at the tree, or fence, or other henroost (your own if you are an idiot), you warm the end of your plank in your friend's fire vessel, and then raise it aloft and ease it up gently against a slumbering chicken's foot.

    Sketches New And Old Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 1922

  • The entrance to the rock cave is still shown, at the mouth of Kaliuwaa valley, where Kamapuaa's grandmother shut up her chickens at night, and it was for robbing his uncle's henroost that this rascally pig-god was chased away from Oahu.

    The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Martha Warren Beckwith 1915

  • Your goin 'over there is the best thing for the -- the henroost that ever was or ever will be.

    Fair Harbor Joseph Crosby Lincoln 1907

  • Women with a great deal of money and no experience opened "hospitals" that were about as fit for the reception and treatment of wounded men as a henroost is capable of housing an eagle.

    Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Kelly Miller 1901

  • The world forgives him for debauching another man's wife, but would never have forgiven him had he raided the same man's henroost.

    The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 1. 1898

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