Hall (h&add;l), n. [OE.
halle, hal, AS. heal, heall; akin to D. hal, OS. & OHG. halla, G.
halle, Icel. höll, and prob. from a
root meaning, to hide, conceal, cover. See Hell, Helmet.]
1. A building or
room of considerable size and stateliness, used for public purposes; as, Westminster Hall, in London.
2. (a) The chief room in a castle or manor house, and in early
times the only public room, serving as the place of
gathering for the lord's family with the retainers and servants, also for cooking and eating. It was often
contrasted with the bower, which was the private or sleeping apartment.
Full sooty was her bower
and eke her
hall.
Chaucer. Hence, as the
entrance from outside was directly into the hall: (b) A vestibule, entrance room, etc., in the more elaborated buildings of later times. Hence:
(c) Any corridor or passage in a
building.
3. A name given
to many manor houses because the magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion; a chief mansion house. Cowell.
4.
A college in an English
university (at Oxford, an unendowed college).
5. The apartment in which English university
students dine in common; hence, the dinner itself; as, hall is at
six o'clock.
6. Cleared passageway in a crowd; -- formerly an exclamation. [Obs.] "A
hall! a hall!" B. Jonson.
Syn. -- Entry; court; passage. See Vestibule.
Hear it pronounced