house-hunting

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

In the city of New York all houses are let from the 1st day of May, and the landlords have assumed to themselves the right of requiring from their tenants a decision, as to whether they will keep their houses or not, three months before the period for which they hired them expires. On those houses which are not hired for another term (usually a year) "bills" are put up by the landlords, signifying that they are to let. Persons who intend to "move," traverse that section of the city in which they desire to establish themselves, in search of a suitable house, in which search they are guided by the landlord's "bills." This is called house-hunting, and is practised by thousands every year in the city of New York.


Polly began to grow uneasy now, because we hadn't got no house, and said I ought to go a house-hunting as everybody else did, or else we should be turn'd out of doors.--Maj. Downing, May-day in New York.

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