ABODE (from " abide," to dwell, properly " to wait for ," to bide)  , generally, a dwelling . In English law this term has a more restricted meaning than domicile, being used to indicate the place of a man's residence or business, whether that be either temporary or permanent . The law may regard for certain purposes, as a man's abode, the place where he carries on business, though he may reside elsewhere ; so that the term has come to have a looser significance than residence, which has been defined as " where a man lives with his family and sleeps at night" (R. v . Hammond, 1852, 17 Q.B . 772) . In serving a notice of action, a solicitor's place of business may be given as his abode (Roberts v . Williams, 1835, 5 L.J.M.C . 23), and in more recent decisions it has been similarly held that where a notice was required to be served under the Public Health Act 1875, either personally or to some inmate of the owner's or occupier's " place of abode, " a place of business was sufficient .