hall
hall / hôl/ • n. 1. an area in a building onto which rooms open; a corridor. ∎ the room or space just inside the front entrance of a house or apartment: an entrance hall. 2. a large room for meetings, concerts, or other events: [in names] Carnegie Hall. ∎ a large public room in a mansion or palace used for receptions and banquets. ∎ Brit. the room used for meals in a college, university, or school: he dined in hall. ∎ a college or university building containing classrooms, residences, or rooms for other purposes. ∎ the principal living room of a medieval house. 3. [usu. in names] Brit. a large country house, esp. one with a landed estate: Darlington Hall.
hall
1. Main room of a medieval house or the large, communal room of a college, etc., often an open-hall, open to the roof, and sometimes with an open hearth.
2. Large room or building for the transaction of public business, the holding of courts of justice, or any public assembly, meeting, or entertainment (e.g. music-hall).
3. Building for a guild or fraternity, such as a London Livery-Company Hall (e.g. Hall of The Fishmongers' Company), or for a municipal body (e.g. city- or town-hall).
4. Principal messuage of a manor, i.e. the residence of a territorial proprietor.
5. University building set aside for the residence or instruction of students.
6. Common-room in a mansion in which servants dined.
7. Any large roofed volume.
8. Entrance-room (or -hall).
Bibliography
Alcock,, Barley,, Dixon,, & and Meeson (1996);
Gwilt (1903);
W. Papworth (1852);
M. Thompson (1995)