housekeeping

[ hous-kee-ping ]
/ ˈhaʊsˌki pɪŋ /

noun

the maintenance of a house or domestic establishment.
the management of household affairs.
the management, care, and servicing of property and equipment of an industrial or commercial building or organization.
the ongoing routine, procedures, operations, and management of a commercial enterprise, government, organization, or the like.
Computers. system tasks, as initialization and managing peripheral devices, that must be done to permit a computer program to execute properly but that do not directly contribute to program output.

Origin of housekeeping

First recorded in 1530–40; house + keeping

Definition for housekeeping (2 of 2)

housekeep
[ hous-keep ]
/ ˈhaʊsˌkip /

verb (used without object), house·kept, house·keep·ing.

to keep or maintain a house.

Origin of housekeep

First recorded in 1835–45; back formation from housekeeping

Example sentences from the Web for housekeeping

British Dictionary definitions for housekeeping

housekeeping
/ (ˈhaʊsˌkiːpɪŋ) /

noun

the running of a household
money allocated for the running of a household
organization and tidiness in general, as of an office, shop, etc
the general maintenance of a computer storage system, including removal of obsolete files, documentation, security copying, etc