housetopn.
/ˈhaʊstɒp/, U.S. /ˈhaʊsˌtɑp/ The top of a house, esp. the roof. Also figurative (with reference to Phrases).
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > roof > [noun]
roofOE
thackOE
heelinga1325
coverture1382
house-copa1425
covering1459
housetop1526
rooftop1564
house heada1600
tecture1624
1526 Bible (Tyndale) Matt. xxiv. f. xxxiiijv Lett hym whych is on the housse toppe, not come doune to take enytinge out of his housse.
1582 Bible (Rheims) Luke xii. 3 That which you haue spoken into the eare in the chambers shal be preached in the house-toppes [L. praedicabitur in tectis].
1648 S. Danforth Almanack 7 Peace..Which over all house-tops, townes, fields doth spread.
1663 J. Beale Let. 21 Nov. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) II. 210 Somethings I knowe We should manage in Secrete; Some on the house Top.
1673 B. Makin Ess. to revive Antient Educ. Gentlewomen 3 The liberal Education of Women..will make Women so high, and men so low, like Fire in the House-top, it will set the whole world in a Flame.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Imbricated shell Shells are elevated into transverse ridges, lying over one another at the base, in the manner of the tiles on a house-top.
1797 M. Robinson Walsingham II. xlv. 313 Again I arose, but my head was so giddy that I was near falling from the house-top.
1828 T. Carlyle Crit. & Misc. Ess. (1857) I. 238 Mounting to the house-top to reach the stars.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xi. 1 The streets, the balconies, and the very housetops were crowded with gazers.
1899 Westm. Gaz. 15 Nov. 3/2 The policy of house-top virtue.
1938 Amer. Home Oct. 90/3 The angle was not at all objectionable; in fact, it imparted a rather pleasing variation from the rest of the housetop.
2008 Portland (Maine) Press Herald (Nexis) 13 Mar. e2 Nearly half of his winter business this year is ridding housetops of dangerously heavy snowfall amounts.
Phrases
to proclaim (also cry, declare, shout) (something) on (also from, upon) the house-top(s) and variants: to make public, esp. something personal or secret; to bring to widespread attention. [After Luke 12:3 (see quot. 1582 at main sense).]
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > information > announcing or proclaiming > announce or proclaim [verb (transitive)] > loudly
trumpc1384
blazec1450
depredicate1550
abuccinate1569
blazon1577
ebuccinate1588
to proclaim (also cry, declare, shout) (something) on (also from, upon) the house-top(s)?1591
exclaima1593
trumpet1609
trumpet-tonguea1616
chanticleer1810
bugle1837
horn1874
?1591 H. Barrow Brief Discouerie False Church 178 Such an enemie am I to true knowledg & learning, that I would not haue yt any longer kept secret.., but euen proclaimed vpon the house top in euerie Citie & in euery street.
1696 M. Astell Serious Proposal to Ladies (ed. 3) 85 Deceivers..need not creep into Houses, since they have Authority to proclaim their Errors on the House top.
1738 J. Wesley Let. 30 Oct. (1931) I. 263 What sins they were which till then reigned over me, and from which by the grace of God I am now free, I am ready to declare on the house-top, if it may be for the glory of God.
1767 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IX. xxxii. 136 Though whisper'd in the hay-loft, Fame caught the notes with her brazen trumpet and sounded them upon the house-top.
1839 R. Dawes Nix's Mate I. iv. 91 It was not bruited abroad and proclaimed from the house-tops, but it was indignantly whispered about in private.
1881 Temple Bar Oct. 147 Randulf knew, as well as if some one were constantly shouting it aloud from the house-tops, that his father worshipped him.
1911 C. G. Robertson Eng. under Hanoverians ii. iv. 345 To cry on the house-tops that it was merry in England before the new industry came up.
1934 ‘G. Orwell’ Burmese Days iii. 52 If truly you disapprove of the British Empire, you would not be talking of it privately here. You would be proclaiming from the housetops.
2010 Guardian (Nexis) 6 Mar. 4 I've been wanting to shout it from the housetops that I have the best daughter in the world and this is my big chance.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1526