housetop

• house top, (archaic) house-top

From house +‎ top.

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈhaʊsˌtɑp/

housetop (plural housetops)

1. The roof of a house.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 10:26–27:

     26 Feare them not therefore: for there is nothing couered, that shall not be reueiled; and hidde, that shall not be knowen.
     27 What I tell you in darkenesse, that speake yee in light: and what yee heare in the eare, that preach yee vpon the house tops.

   • c. 1860, Benjamin R. Hamby, Up on the Housetop:

     Up on the housetop, reindeer pause. / Out jumps good old Santa Claus.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 41:

     Not only did the distance to the The Pure Drop, the fully-licensed tavern at the further part of the dispersed village, render its accommodation practically unavailable for dwellers at this end; but the far more serious question, the quality of the liquor, confirmed the prevalent opinion that it was better to drink with Rolliver in a corner of the housetop than with the other landlord in a wide house.

• cry from the housetop

• pot-house, pothouse