Meaning
To win wild, roaring applause, laughter or cheering from an audience; to be an overwhelming success with a crowd. Though born in the theatre, it now covers speeches, jokes, wedding toasts and any public triumph. British speakers more often put the words the other way round, as 'bring the house down'. Neutral register and celebratory in tone; often intensified with 'absolutely' despite the built-in hyperbole. Regional use: General English; 'bring the house down' is the more common word order in British English.
Origin
Theatrical in origin and hyperbolic by design. In theatre jargon the 'house' is the auditorium together with its audience, so a performance that 'brought down the house' was one whose applause and cheering were jokingly loud enough to collapse the building. Christine Ammer's American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms records the expression from the mid-1700s and describes it as theatre slang. The joke stayed alive in the late 1800s, when British music-hall comedians facing a silent house would deadpan, 'Don't clap so hard; you'll bring the house down (it's a very old house)'. The image targets the theatre building that contains the audience rather than the crowd alone, though the two are fused in the word 'house' itself.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- bring the house down
- bring the house down with laughter
- brought down the house
- brought the house down
Usage Examples
- Her closing number brought down the house, and the applause ran on through the encore.
- The best man's speech absolutely brought the house down; even the caterers were wiping their eyes.
- Every open-mic comic dreams of the set that finally brings the house down.