Meanings
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1
noun
the roof or uppermost part of a house
Smoke drifted above the housetop after the chimney fire was put out.
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2
noun
a high, public vantage point, especially in the expression proclaim or shout something from the housetops
After months of secrecy, she wanted to shout the news from the housetops.
Thesaurus
Etymology
A compound of house + top, recorded from the sixteenth century. Its literal sense is the roof of a house; biblical and later idiomatic uses of proclaiming something from the housetops made it an image of very public announcement.