From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
hearth
n 1: an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a
fire can be built; "the fireplace was so large you could
walk inside it"; "he laid a fire in the hearth and lit
it"; "the hearth was black with the charcoal of many
fires" [syn: fireplace, open fireplace]
2: home symbolized as a part of the fireplace; "driven from
hearth and home"; "fighting in defense of their firesides"
[syn: fireside]
3: an area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out
into a room); "they sat on the hearth and warmed
themselves before the fire" [syn: fireside]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Hearth \Hearth\ (h[aum]rth), n. [OE. harthe, herth, herthe, AS.
heor[eth]; akin to D. haard, heerd, Sw. h[aum]rd, G. herd;
cf. Goth. ha['u]ri a coal, Icel. hyrr embers, and L. cremare
to burn.]
1. The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a
chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a
fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.
[1913 Webster]
There was a fire on the hearth burning before him.
--Jer. xxxvi.
22.
[1913 Webster]
Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths
unswept.
There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates
and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.
[1913 Webster]
Household talk and phrases of the hearth.
--Tennyson.
3. (Metal. & Manuf.) The floor of a furnace, on which the
material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a
melting furnace, into which the melted material settles;
as, an open-hearth smelting furnace.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
Hearth ends (Metal.), fragments of lead ore ejected from
the furnace by the blast.
Hearth money, Hearth penny [AS. heor[eth]pening], a tax
formerly laid in England on hearths, each hearth (in all
houses paying the church and poor rates) being taxed at
two shillings; -- called also chimney money, etc.
[1913 Webster]
He had been importuned by the common people to
relieve them from the . . . burden of the hearth
money. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]