Lodge (?), n. [OE. loge, logge, F. loge, LL. laubia porch, gallery, fr. OHG. louba, G. laube, arbor, bower, fr. lab foliage. See Leaf, and cf. Lobby, Loggia.] 1. A shelter in which one may rest; as: (a) A shed; a rude cabin; a hut; as, an Indian's lodge. Chaucer.
Their lodges and their tentis up they gan bigge. Robert of Brunne.
O for a lodge in some vast wilderness! Cowper.
(b) A small dwelling house, as for a gamekeeper or gatekeeper of an estate. Shak. (c) A den or cave. (d) The meeting room of an association; hence, the regularly constituted body of members which meets there; as, a masonic lodge. (c) The chamber of an abbot, prior, or head of a college.
2. (Mining) The space at the mouth of a level next the shaft, widened to permit wagons to pass, or ore to be deposited for hoisting; — called also platt. Raymond.
3. A collection of objects lodged together.
The Maldives, a famous lodge of islands. De Foe.
4. A family of North American Indians, or the persons who usually occupy an Indian lodge, — as a unit of enumeration, reckoned from four to six persons; as, the tribe consists of about two hundred lodges, that is, of about a thousand individuals.
Lodge gate, a park gate, or entrance gate, near the lodge. See Lodge, n., 1 (b).