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  • "An island tradition claims that Nantucket women dealt with their husbands' long absences by relying on sexual aids known as 'he's-at-homes.'"

    --Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, 17

    May 1, 2008

  • This calls out for a pictorial representation.

    May 1, 2008

  • I totally agree, s. If it helps, I found it described as "six inches of cold hard plaster" :D

    May 1, 2008

  • Plethora's right. The book continues:

    "Although this claim, like that of drug specifically opium use, seems to fly in the face of the island's staid Quaker reputation, in 1979 a six-inch plaster penis (along with a batch of letters from the nineteenth century and a laudanum bottle) was discovered hidden in the chimney of a house in the island's historic district."

    (same page)

    That's all he says about it, though.

    May 1, 2008

  • Along with a faded, confessional manuscript: "I was a godemiche model on Nantucket", by Sybian O' Lisbos.

    May 1, 2008

  • It makes one wonder if perhaps the phrase whalebone corset isn't really a euphemism for something completely different.

    "Why was Eulalia looking so blissful during Parson Weems's sermon?"

    "Oh, it's that new whalebone corset that Ishmael carved for her; she's still breaking it in!"

    May 2, 2008

  • Uhh, no. I can testify that whalebone corsets really are whalebone corsets. They are not all that comfortable, given that their purpose was to rearrange the location of your internal organs so you'd look prettier.

    May 2, 2008

  • Surgery would do that more comfortably, no doubt.

    May 2, 2008

  • Some women actually did have lower ribs surgically removed for that purpose. In the 20th century.

    (Does anyone really wonder why I'm a raging feminist?)

    May 2, 2008

  • So you're a feminist. How cute. ;-)

    May 2, 2008

  • You forgot "raging."

    ;)

    May 2, 2008

  • Why do you hate freedom so much?

    May 2, 2008

  • So you're a raging feminist. How enragingly cute.

    May 3, 2008

  • Oh great, NOW I'm craving ribs...

    May 3, 2008

  • Sionnach, why do say "why do you hate freedom"? Do you hate freedom?

    May 3, 2008

  • oooooh! Meta!

    May 4, 2008

  • So, what would be the definition of a she's-at-home?

    May 4, 2008

  • ... a beer and a remote control?

    May 4, 2008