From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Host \Host\ (h[=o]st), n. [LL. hostia sacrifice, victim, from
hostire to strike.] (R. C. Ch.)
The consecrated wafer, believed to be the body of Christ,
which in the Mass is offered as a sacrifice; also, the bread
before consecration.
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Note: In the Latin Vulgate the word was applied to the Savior
as being an offering for the sins of men.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Host \Host\, v. t.
To give entertainment to. [Obs.] --Spenser.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Host \Host\ (h[=o]st), n. [OE. host, ost, OF. host, ost, fr. L.
hostis enemy, LL., army. See Guest, and cf. Host a
landlord.]
1. An army; a number of men gathered for war.
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A host so great as covered all the field. --Dryden.
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2. Any great number or multitude; a throng.
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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God. --Luke ii. 13.
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All at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils. --Wordsworth.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Host \Host\, v. i.
To lodge at an inn; to take up entertainment. [Obs.] "Where
you shall host." --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Host \Host\ (h[=o]st), n. [OE. host, ost, OF. hoste, oste, F.
h[^o]te, from L. hospes a stranger who is treated as a guest,
he who treats another as his guest, a hostl prob. fr. hostis
stranger, enemy (akin to E. guest a visitor) + potis able;
akin to Skr. pati master, lord. See Host an army,
Possible, and cf. Hospitable, Hotel.]
1. One who receives or entertains another, whether
gratuitously or for compensation; one from whom another
receives food, lodging, or entertainment; a landlord.
--Chaucer. "Fair host and Earl." --Tennyson.
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Time is like a fashionable host,
That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand.
--Shak.
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2. (Biol.) Any animal or plant affording lodgment or
subsistence to a parasitic or commensal organism. Thus a
tree is a host of an air plant growing upon it.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]