drawing room

English

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

Shortening of withdrawing room.

Noun

drawing room (plural drawing rooms)

  1. (British, somewhat dated) Any room where visitors may be entertained; now, the living room.
  2. (British) A multifunctional room that can be used for any purpose in a palace or castle.
  3. (British) A levée where ladies are presented at court or to society.
    • 1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, [], published 1870, →OCLC:
      The concluding ceremony came off at twelve o’clock on the day of departure; when Miss Twinkleton, supported by Mrs. Tisher, held a drawing-room in her own apartment (the globes already covered with brown Holland), where glasses of white-wine and plates of cut pound-cake were discovered on the table.
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in Vanity Fair [], London: Bradbury and Evans [], published 1848, →OCLC:
      [A] great deal of conversation had taken place about the drawing-room, and whether or not young ladies wore powder as well as hoops when presented, and whether she was to have that honour: to the Lord Mayor's ball she knew she was to go.
    • 1860, Ellen Wood, East Lynne, Penguin, published 2005, page 11:
      ‘Mrs Vane of Castle Marling is staying with us; she came up to present my child at the last Drawing-room but I think I heard something about her dining out to-day.’
  4. (US) A private room on a railroad sleeping car.
Translations

Noun

drawing room (plural drawing rooms)

  1. A room where engineers draw up plans and patterns.
    Synonym: drawing office

See also

Anagrams

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