habitation

noun

1. (uncountable)The act of inhabiting; state of inhabiting or dwelling, or of being inhabited; occupancy.

   “And there have been Common-wealths that having no more Territory, than hath served them for habitation, have neverthelesse, not onely maintained, but also encreased their Power, partly by the labour of trading from one place to another, and partly by selling the Manifactures, whereof the Materials were brought in from other places.”

   “Witness this new-made world, another Heaven From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea; Of amplitude almost immense, with stars Numerous, and every star perhaps a world Of destined habitation […]”

   “The few miserable hovels that shewed some marks of human habitation, were now of still rarer occurrence; and, at length, as we began to ascend a huge and uninterrupted swell of moorland, they totally disappeared.”

   “Now, however, the windows in the houses began one by one to be lit up, giving a greater sense of habitation and humanity.”

2. (countable)A place of abode; settled dwelling; residence; house.

   “And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.”

   “Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.”

   “Mrs Deborah, having disposed of the child according to the will of her master, now prepared to visit those habitations which were supposed to conceal its mother.”

   “How gay the Habitations that adorn This fertile Valley! Not a House but seems To give assurance of content within;”

   “And this is Shanty Town, my friend. ¶ Even here the children laugh in the narrow lanes that run between these tragic habitations.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A group, lodge, or company, as of the Primrose League.
4. (Louisiana)A farm, ranch or plantation.