Tavern

A place of entertainment; a house kept up for the accommodation of strangers.

Webster.

Originally, a house for the retailing of liquors to be drunk on the spot.

Webster.

In almost all the states, the word has come to mean the same as "inn," with no particular reference to the sale of liquors.

See 2 Kent, Comm. (9th Ed.) 597*, note (a); 5 N. H. 258.

Tavern, hotel, inn and public house are in this country used synonymously; and while they entertain the traveling public, and keep guests, and receive compensation therefor, they do not lose their character, though they may not have the privilege of selling liquors. The distinction, as respects inn and tavern keepers, observed in England under the common law, does not exist with us, and different names are applied to them, though "hotel" and "house" are usually and commonly used to denote a higher order of public houses than the ordinary tavern or inn. The word "tavern" includes all hotels and houses that entertain and accommodate the public for compensation.

46 Mo. 593, Ann. Cas. 1914B 874, note.