forcing house

English

Noun

forcing house (plural forcing houses)

1. A place where plants are forced into maturity sooner than would naturally happen.
2. (figurative) Any place that promotes early development.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 763:

     Princeton University, forcing house for leaders of the Presbyterian Awakening, was a ready source of morale-boosting sermons and literature, and its Scottish President, John Witherspoon, was a leading figure in the Continental Congress through the revolutionary years.

See also

• hothouse