housekeeping
noun
house·keep·ing
ˈhau̇s-ˌkē-piŋ 
1
a
: the management of a house and home affairs
… coming home to husbands who won't share in the housekeeping …—
The Wilson Quarterly
The Wilson QuarterlyThe first defense against insect infestation is good housekeeping (regular vacuuming) to remove eggs and larvae from the fabrics.—Sara J. Wolf
Sara J. Wolf
b
: the work or activity of cleaning and preparing rooms for customers (as in a hotel)
—often used before another noun
housekeeping services
took a housekeeping job at a nearby hotel
also
: the department or employees responsible for doing such work
If you need fresh towels you can call housekeeping.
2
: the care and management of property and the provision of equipment and services (as for an industrial organization)
3
: the routine tasks that must be done in order for a system to function or to function efficiently
performing some computer housekeeping by deleting old files
Examples of housekeeping in a Sentence
We took the computer offline to do some basic housekeeping.
Recent Examples on the Web
And with most of the early housekeeping having been taken care of in the Day Zero launch special, this episode hurls us directly into the season’s first challenge, which sees players diving into a huge mud pit to collect balls worth varying degrees of points.
—Nick Caruso, TVLine, 30 July 2025
The decision to combine it with a separate tale involving the Richards-Storm son, who’ll eventually be named Franklin and also become an oversized presence, is a curious one, and feels a little bit like the creators are trying to get a lot of housekeeping out of the way at once.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 22 July 2025
Michael Enright, spokesman for the university, said UConn has closed or consolidated a small number of academic programs, but that was in the course of normal academic housekeeping based on low enrollments, not in reaction to the upcoming budget.
—Livi Stanford, Hartford Courant, 24 June 2025
The property is also equipped with its own elevator and a private housekeeping service.
—Natalia Senanayake, People.com, 21 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for housekeeping
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Nick Caruso, TVLine, 30 July 2025
The decision to combine it with a separate tale involving the Richards-Storm son, who’ll eventually be named Franklin and also become an oversized presence, is a curious one, and feels a little bit like the creators are trying to get a lot of housekeeping out of the way at once.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 22 July 2025
Michael Enright, spokesman for the university, said UConn has closed or consolidated a small number of academic programs, but that was in the course of normal academic housekeeping based on low enrollments, not in reaction to the upcoming budget.
—Livi Stanford, Hartford Courant, 24 June 2025
The property is also equipped with its own elevator and a private housekeeping service.
—Natalia Senanayake, People.com, 21 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for housekeeping
Cite this Entry
“Housekeeping.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/housekeeping. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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