halfway house

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

The term has been used in the United States since at least the Temperance Movement of the 1840s.

Noun[edit]

halfway house (plural halfway houses)

  1. An inn or place of calm midway on a journey.
    • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 26:
      Even to-day Zakro is still the principal half-way house for sailing craft between the Ægean and the north coast of Africa.
  2. A temporary residence for those who have left prison, residential drug rehabilitation, or the like, designed to ease them back into society.
    • 2023 July 11, “Manson follower Leslie Van Houten released from prison after 53 years”, in The Guardian[1]:
      She added that Van Houten will head to a halfway house for about a year after her release.
  3. (figuratively) A halfway point, e.g. towards achieving a goal.
    • 2021 April 21, Philip Haigh, “As one strike ends, trouble starts to flare up elsewhere...”, in RAIL, number 929, page 56:
      The deal represents a halfway house to driver-only operation, as seen elsewhere - for example, on Thameslink, where the driver is the only member of staff who must be aboard the train.

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