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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Hearth \Hearth\ (h[aum]rth), noun [OE. harthe, herth, herthe, AS. heor[eth]; akin to D. haard, heerd, Sw. h["a]rd, G. herd; cf. Goth. ha['u]ri a coal, Icel. hyrr embers, and L. cremare to burn.]
1. The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.
There was a fire on the hearth burning before him. --Jer. xxxvi. 22.
Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths unswept. There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. --Shak.
2. The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.
Household talk and phrases of the hearth. --Tennyson.
3. (Metal. & Manuf.) The floor of a furnace, on which the material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a melting furnace, into which the melted material settles; as, an open-hearth smelting furnace. [1913 Webster +PJC]
{Hearth ends} (Metal.), fragments of lead ore ejected from the furnace by the blast.
{Hearth money}, {Hearth penny} [AS. heor[eth]pening], a tax formerly laid in England on hearths, each hearth (in all houses paying the church and poor rates) being taxed at two shillings; -- called also {chimney money}, etc.
He had been importuned by the common people to relieve them from the . . . burden of the hearth money. --Macaulay.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
hearth
noun
1: an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built; "the fireplace was so large you could walk inside it"; "he laid a fire in the hearth and lit it"; "the hearth was black with the charcoal of many fires" [syn: {fireplace}, {open fireplace}]
2: home symbolized as a part of the fireplace; "driven from hearth and home"; "fighting in defense of their firesides" [syn: {fireside}]
3: an area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out into a room); "they sat on the hearth and warmed themselves before the fire" [syn: {fireside}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
41 Moby Thesaurus words for "hearth": ancestral halls, brood, children, chimney, chimney corner, family, family homestead, fender, fire screen, fireboard, fireguard, fireplace, fireside, flue, folks, foyer, get, hearth and home, hearthstone, hob, home, home place, home roof, home sweet home, homefolks, homestead, house, household, hub, ingle, inglenook, ingleside, issue, menage, offspring, paternal roof, people, roof, rooftree, smokehole, toft
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Hearth Heb. ah (Jer. 36:22, 23; R.V., "brazier"), meaning a large pot like a brazier, a portable furnace in which fire was kept in the king's winter apartment. Heb. kiyor (Zech. 12:6; R.V., "pan"), a fire-pan. Heb. moqed (Ps. 102:3; R.V., "fire-brand"), properly a fagot. Heb. yaqud (Isa. 30:14), a burning mass on a hearth.
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