stately home

stately home

English

Noun

stately home (plural stately homes)

1. (Britain) Synonym of country house, especially one owned by the aristocracy
   • 1937, Noël Coward, Operette

     The stately homes of England
     How beautiful they stand,
     To prove the upper classes
     Have still the upper hand,
     Tho' the fact that they have to be rebuilt
     And frequently mortgaged to the hilt
     Is inclined to take the guilt
     Off the gingerbread.

   • 1967, The Kinks, Sunny Afternoon

     The tax man's taken all my dough
     And left me in my stately home
     Lazing on a sunny afternoon

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 266-267:

     'There's just something nice about the idea that you can move without being seen - that you can go down there and come up here. I grew up in a stately home,' he continued without a trace of boastfulness, 'and there actually was a secret passage. [...]'

References

• “stately home”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.