it takes a heap of living to make a house a home
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.56 in modern English
67
Scrabble Score
37
Letters
7
Syllables
16
Unique Chars
Meaning
proverb
A house is simply a physical structure and does not count as a home until significant events in the inhabitants' lives have occurred there over a substantial period of time, and they have developed an emotional bond to the house and its immediate environs.
American usage
Example Sentences
- "We often hear the famous lines quoted that it takes a heap of living to make a house a home, but we have to recognize that the family cannot do it without a house in which to start."
- "It may take a heap of living to make a house a home, as the old cross-stitched samplers used to urge, but a commission-collecting realtor cannot deposit a six percent cut of a seller's hearth sentiments in a bank account."
- "Just as "it takes a heap of living to make a house a home," and just as it takes character to turn an individual into a reliable person, so it takes sustained moral human interactions to make any institution viable."
Etymology
Usage
- American usage