from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A heated greenhouse for plants that require an even, relatively warm temperature.
- n. An environment conducive to vigorous growth or development; a hotbed: "With its mix of African, Latin, European, and pan-American influences, the Caribbean is truly a musical hothouse” ( New Yorker).
- adj. Grown in a hothouse: a hothouse orchid.
- adj. Delicate and sensitive, as if from being grown in a hothouse.
- transitive v. To cultivate in a hothouse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A heated greenhouse.
- n. An environment in which growth or development is encouraged; a hotbed.
- n. A bagnio, or bathing house; a brothel.
- n. A heated room for drying greenware.
- v. To provide with an enriched environment with the aim of stimulating academic development.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A house kept warm to shelter tender plants and shrubs from the cold air; a place in which the plants of warmer climates may be reared, and fruits ripened.
- n. A bagnio, or bathing house.
- n. A brothel; a bagnio.
- n. A heated room for drying green ware.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A house in which to sweat and cup the body; a bath-house.
- n. A brothel.
- n. A structure kept artificially heated for the growth of tender exotic plants, or subtropical plants, or for the production of native fruits, flowers, etc., out of season.
- n. In manufacturing, any heated chamber or building; a drying-room; specifically, the warmest drying-room in which green pottery is dried before going to the kiln.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a greenhouse in which plants are arranged in a pleasing manner
The atmosphere was purified in a vast "hothouse" - a large, circular room buried just below the lunar surface.
“Saturated in hothouse colors, the three-act “Lantern” is an intense dance-theater version of the multi-award-winning film by Chinese auteur Zhang Yimou (” Hero,” “House of Flying Daggers”).
PIJ arose out of a nucleus of Palestinian students at Zakazik University in Egypt, known as a hothouse of religious fanaticism.
Edna bent over her flowers, and recognizing many favorites that recalled the hothouse at Le Bocage, her eyes filled with tears, and she hastily put her lips to the snowy cups of an oxalis.
The result is a kind of hothouse garden of carefully selected rare flora carefully cultivated to see the world from within a beltway perspective.
Al-Noor uses a high intensity, competitive "hothouse" program to break the stranglehold for BT's toughest calls.
That was an astonishing privilege, as children were not allowed in the conservatory, or "hothouse," as one of the boys called it, without an adult.
Or was it simply the kind of hothouse atmosphere of a Washington summit with the President and the King looking on, and the expectations engendered?
Verena had submitted, she had responded, she had lent herself to Olive's incitement and exhortation, because she was sympathetic and young and abundant and fanciful; but it had been a kind of hothouse loyalty, the mere contagion of example, and a sentiment springing up from within had easily breathed
The most energetic and rebellious of them may feel angry to be told so, but it is the truth that it suits men in general to keep up a kind of hothouse bloom upon the characters of women.
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