Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A writing table; a desk.
- noun A desk with a top section for books.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A piece of furniture with conveniences for writing, as an opening top or falling front panel, places for inkstand, pens, and stationery, etc.; also, a tray to hold inkstand, pens, and other implements for writing.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A piece of furniture used as a writing table, commonly with drawers, pigeonholes, and the like; a secretary or writing desk.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
writing desk with a hinged door that provides the writing surface.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a desk used for writing
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Will you have the courage to burn family relics?--Aunt Maria's uncomfortable ottoman, Aunt Elizabeth's escritoire, which is too small to write at, and Aunt Anne's firescreen with strawberries worked in bead-work?
There was a King in Egypt Norma Lorimer 1906
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Nothing had been disturbed -- the old cabinet with the lions 'heads stood opposite the window; the little escritoire, behind which he had crouched on the fatal night, was pushed back against the wall; the chairs, the tables, thick with dust, stood just as they had been standing for many years.
The Inn at the Red Oak Latta Griswold
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Then he sat himself in his large arm-chair before his escritoire, and began transacting his affairs with the usual -- "But where is that idiot, that dolt, that sluggard, that snail, withn my mail?"
Balcony Stories Grace E. King
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I was awakened one night from a sound sleep by a noise in my chamber, and starting up in affright, I beheld by the light of a lamp which was burning near the bed, a boy in the act of forcing open my escritoire, with a small instrument which caused the noise.
City Crimes or Life in New York and Boston George Thompson
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The floor, the chairs--not common ones but of the early Queen Anne fashion with leathern seats -- an old escritoire, were strewn with papers.
Madame Flirt A Romance of 'The Beggar's Opera' Charles Edward Pearce
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After a moment's consultation with her daughter, Mrs. Franklin left the room to get the money from her escritoire.
City Crimes or Life in New York and Boston George Thompson
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She put down her cigarette, rose, and went to an escritoire against the wall.
Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010
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Dela garde watched her seat herself at the little escritoire in the corner, and draw a sheaf of crested paper towards her.
Gatlinburg 2010
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She rose, and went hunting in a littered sort of escritoire in a corner of the room.
Movie Night 2010
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She had her heart set on that Louis Seize escritoire -- but she'll have to make do without it.
vendingmachine commented on the word escritoire
A piece of furniture with conveniences for writing, as an opening top or falling front panel, places for inkstand, pens, and stationery, etc.; also, a tray to hold inkstand, pens, and other implements for writing.
July 6, 2015