Hall

Hall, hawl, n. a large room or passage at the entrance of a house: a large chamber for public business—for meetings, or for the sale of particular goods: an edifice in which courts of justice are held: a manor-house: the main building of a college, and in some cases, as at Oxford and Cambridge, the specific name of a college itself: an unendowed college: a licensed residence for students: the great room in which the students dine together—hence also the dinner itself: a place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licenses, as a Divinity Hall, Apothecaries' Hall.—ns. Hall′age, toll paid for goods sold in a hall; Hall′-door, the front door of a house.—A hall! a hall! a cry at a mask or the like for room for the dance, &c.; Bachelor's hall, a place free from the restraining presence of a wife; Liberty hall, a place where every one can do as he pleases. [A.S. heall; Dut. hal, Ice. holl, &c.]