Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A supervised, inexpensive lodging place for travelers, especially young travelers.
  • noun An inn; a hotel.
  • intransitive verb To stay at hostels while traveling.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To harbor; shelter.
  • To take lodging; lodge; put up.
  • noun A house of entertainment; an inn.
  • noun In English universities, a house for students which does not share like a college in the government of the university. There are still several hostels in Cambridge.
  • noun Lodging.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Archaic An inn.
  • noun obsolete A small, unendowed college in Oxford or Cambridge.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A commercial overnight lodging place, with dormitory accommodation and shared facilities, especially a youth hostel
  • noun not US A temporary refuge for the homeless providing a bed and sometimes food
  • noun obsolete A small, unendowed college in Oxford or Cambridge.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun inexpensive supervised lodging (especially for youths on bicycling trips)
  • noun a hotel providing overnight lodging for travelers

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, lodging, from Old French, from Medieval Latin hospitāle, hospice, inn; see hospital.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Old English reinforced by Old French (h)ostel, from Late Latin hospitale ("hospice"), from Classical Latin hospitalis ("hospitable") itself from hospes ("host") + -alis ("-al").

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Examples

  • Forming the heart of this Sydney village is the While the term hostel might at one time have connoted a grungy and / or antiseptic (albeit cheap) accommodation in an inconvenient part of town, thanks to a number of overnight-stay innovators the hostel is no longer something at which travelers can scoff.

    Gridskipper 2009

  • Forming the heart of this Sydney village is the While the term hostel might at one time have connoted a grungy and / or antiseptic (albeit cheap) accommodation in an inconvenient part of town, thanks to a number of overnight-stay innovators the hostel is no longer something at which travelers can scoff.

    Gridskipper 2009

  • These kinds of large dormitory establishments with common showers and toilets still serve many younger travelers, however, the term hostel now also refers to more traditional hotel-like properties whose rooms have been reconfigured to hold four beds (two sets of bunk beds) that are rented out individually.

    tripso.com 2008

  • When the Gujarati TTS voice spoke for the first time, it was 3 AM, but I did a little dance in hostel My laptop gave me a lot of problems over the last few days, including a hard disk crash 3 days before the project submission.

    Graduated! « Sunayana’s Blog 2009

  • The hostel is built like any house, subjected to the same demands on climate control and isolation.

    Boing Boing 2009

  • “I attend pujas in hostel when I have to .. when there is free food”

    Coming out « Sunayana’s Blog 2008

  • I attend pujas in hostel when I have to, or when there is free food.

    Coming out « Sunayana’s Blog 2008

  • Our hostel is surrounded by shopping malls and gas stations.

    Johannesburg jen 2008

  • Our hostel is surrounded by shopping malls and gas stations.

    Archive 2008-10-01 jen 2008

  • Tiffin-the meal - was my very favorite of the 4 meals served in hostel here, served at 4 pm.

    Archive 2008-01-01 Nupur 2008

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