hearth Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built
    fireplace; open fireplace.
    • 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
  2. noun home symbolized as a part of the fireplace
    fireside.
    • driven from hearth and home
    • fighting in defense of their firesides
  3. noun an area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out into a room)
    fireside.
    • they sat on the hearth and warmed themselves before the fire

WordNet

Hearth noun
Etymology
OE. harthe, herth, herthe, AS. heor; akin to D. haard, heerd, Sw. härd, G. herd; cf. Goth. haúri a coal, Icel. hyrr embers, and L. cremare to burn.
Definitions
  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.
  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.
    He had been importuned by the common people to relieve them from the . . . burden of the hearth money. Macaulay.

Webster 1913