English

Alternative forms

• housie-housie

Noun

housie ‎(uncountable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) A gambling game similar to bingo.
   • 1994, David Grant, On a Roll: A History of Gambling and Lotteries in New Zealand, page 138,

     Aficionados continued to play housie for the rest of the decade, but always under the threat of criminal prosecution.

   • 2001, Patricia Grace, Irihapeti Ramsden, Jonathan Dennis, The Silent Migration: Ngati Poneke Young Maori Club, 1937-1948, page 119,

     She ran raffles, card games and housie to raise money for Māori welfare.

   • 2010, Kate Howarth, Ten Hail Marys, University of Queensland Press, page 98,

     Thursday night was housie night at St Monica′s hall.

   • 2010, Michael Caulfield (editor), The Voices of War: Australians Tell Their Stories from World War I to the Present, unumbered page,

     He was very officious—universally hated—and bingo, then called housie, was illegal, because we had a housie game and we used to play this on deck and we were all up on deck in our shorts and we′d give warning if he was coming.