n. [ OE. halle, hal, AS. heal, heall; akin to D. hal, OS. & OHG. halla, G. halle, Icel. höll, and prob. from a root meaning, to hide, conceal, cover. See Hell, Helmet. ] 1. A building or room of considerable size and stateliness, used for public purposes; as, Westminster Hall, in London. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (a) The chief room in a castle or manor house, and in early times the only public room, serving as the place of gathering for the lord's family with the retainers and servants, also for cooking and eating. It was often contrasted with the bower, which was the private or sleeping apartment. [ 1913 Webster ]

Full sooty was her bower and eke her hall. Chaucer.

Hence, as the entrance from outside was directly into the hall: (b) A vestibule, entrance room, etc., in the more elaborated buildings of later times. Hence: (c) Any corridor or passage in a building. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A name given to many manor houses because the magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion; a chief mansion house. Cowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A college in an English university (at Oxford, an unendowed college). [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The apartment in which English university students dine in common; hence, the dinner itself; as, hall is at six o'clock. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Cleared passageway in a crowd; -- formerly an exclamation. [ Obs. ] “A hall! a hall!” B. Jonson.

Syn. -- Entry; court; passage. See Vestibule. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (O. Eng. Law) A fee or toll paid for goods sold in a hall.

{ } n. & interj. [ Heb. See Alleluia. ] Praise ye Jehovah; praise ye the Lord; -- an exclamation used chiefly in songs of praise or thanksgiving to God, and as an expression of gratitude or adoration. Rev. xix. 1 (Rev. Ver. ) [ 1913 Webster ]

So sung they, and the empyrean rung
With Hallelujahs. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

In those days, as St. Jerome tells us, “any one as he walked in the fields, might hear the plowman at his hallelujahs.” Sharp. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, or containing, hallelujahs. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Halyard. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Halidom. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Hale to pull. ] A kind of net for catching birds. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The official stamp of the Goldsmiths' Company and other assay offices, in the United Kingdom, on gold and silver articles, attesting their purity. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, [ figuratively ]: A distinguishing characteristic or characteristics; as, a word or phrase lacks the hall-mark of the best writers. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

See Halloo. [ 1913 Webster ]

interj. [ OE. halow. See Halloo, n. ] An exclamation to call attention or to encourage one. Now mostly replaced by hello. [ 1913 Webster ]