dollhouse

Thân thiện

A little girl arranges the furniture inside her dollhouse.

Definition

Noun: 1. A small model of a house used as a toy by children: A miniature house, typically with furniture and small figures (dolls), designed for children's play. 2. A house so small that it is likened to a child's plaything: A very small, often charmingly compact, real house.

Usage and Examples

• As a toy model:
  • She spent hours arranging the tiny furniture in her new dollhouse.
  • The intricate dollhouse had working lights and miniature paintings on the walls.
• As a very small real house:
  • They retired to a cozy dollhouse by the sea.
  • The historic cottage was a perfect dollhouse, with just two rooms downstairs.

Advanced Usage

• "dollhouse" as a metaphor: Used to describe anything that is delicately small, intricately detailed, or seemingly perfect and self-contained.
  • Her apartment was decorated like a dollhouse, with every item in its precise place.
  • The novel creates a dollhouse version of Victorian society, exposing its hidden tensions.

Variants and Related Words

• Doll's house: This is the common British English spelling for the toy. The American English spelling is typically "dollhouse." Both refer to the same object.
  • In the UK, children might ask for a doll's house for Christmas.

Synonyms

• Toy house: A general term for a miniature house used as a plaything.
• Miniature house: Emphasizes the small, scaled-down nature of the object, applicable to both toys and real estate.
• Cottage: Can be a synonym when referring to a very small, charming real house, though a cottage is not necessarily toy-like.

Idioms and Phrases

• (Like) a dollhouse: Used to describe a place that is exceptionally neat, small, and charming.
  • Everything in her room was perfectly organized; it was like a dollhouse.
• Dollhouse effect: A term sometimes used in architecture or interior design to critique spaces that feel artificially perfect, cramped, or lacking in lived-in authenticity.
  • The overly staged home had a sterile, dollhouse effect that made visitors uncomfortable.

Học thuật

Noun

1. a small model of a house used as a toy by children
2. a house so small that it is likened to a child's plaything

Từ đồng nghĩa

• doll's house