halfway house

H

halfway house

Meaning

• mid-point in recovery, treatment, or progress
• the midway point in a progression
• stepping-stone during rehabilitation
• a secure environment for prisoners, drug addicts, and physically or mentally ill to live before they begin to live alone.
• an arrangement between two different and opposing things
• an inn or resting place in a journey

Example Sentences

1. Frank has gone into a halfway house after 27 years in prison.
2. The social workers are looking for some kind of halfway house for the mentally ill patients after the closure of their current facility was announced.
3. The journey was going to take 12 hours, so they booked a halfway house to break the journey.
4. The negotiations were suspended, and we all knew that we had only reached a halfway house on this very difficult subject.
5. Daisy was sent to a halfway house in Brooklyn, before eventually being set free.
6. We stayed halfway house before arriving here.

Origin

This phrase was first recorded between 1685–95.

There is a quaint story of a British public house from the 1600s, formally known as the Old Red Lion Inn. It changed its name to The Halfway House after a visit from a young Princess Victoria in the 1820s. She stopped there to change horses and asked where she was. “Halway there m’am” – came the answer.

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