Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A wooden dwelling with a low-pitched roof and wide eaves, common in Alpine regions.
  • noun A cottage or lodge built in this style.
  • noun The hut of a herder in the Swiss Alps.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hut or cabin in which cattle and herdsmen are housed for the night on the Swiss mountains.
  • noun Hence A dwelling-house of the Swiss peasantry similarly constructed, that is, low, with very wide eaves, and with the roof weighted down with large stones to secure it against the mountain winds.
  • noun A country residence built in the general style of a Swiss mountain cottage, but generally of ornamental character.
  • noun A more or less ornamental structure placed at convenient points in cities, containing urinals, lavatory, etc., for public convenience; a modern street ‘necessary.’

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A herdsman's hut in the mountains of Switzerland.
  • noun A summer cottage or country house in the Swiss mountains; any country house built in the style of the Swiss cottages.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun an alpine style of wooden building with a sloping roof and overhanging eaves

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a Swiss house with a sloping roof and wide eaves or a house built in this style

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Swiss French, possibly diminutive of *cala, shelter.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Swiss French, from Franco-Provençal çhalè ‘herdsman’s hut in the mountains’, from Old Franco-Provençal chaslet, diminutive of chasel ‘farmhouse’, from Late Latin casalis ‘house-like, house-related’, from Latin casa ‘house’.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word chalet.

Examples

  • The interior design is clean, simple and suited for a mountain chalet with an open attitude towards contemporary arrangements.

    Modern Cottage on West Lake Okoboji Shoreline 2010

  • The five teams (organized according to which lodge the participants were camped in) left Serre Chevalier for Briançon and climbed aboard le téléphérique, * destination: a formidable mountain chalet, une étoile* in the night.

    French Word-A-Day: 2005

  • The five teams (organized according to which lodge the participants were camped in) left Serre Chevalier for Briançon and climbed aboard le téléphérique, * destination: a formidable mountain chalet, une étoile* in the night.

    un pépin - French Word-A-Day 2005

  • The five teams (organized according to which lodge the participants were camped in) left Serre Chevalier for Briançon and climbed aboard le téléphérique, * destination: a formidable mountain chalet, une étoile* in the night.

    French Word-A-Day: 2005

  • Sass said ... swiss chalet is an institution in my family, always has been ... there's actually one in Ft. Lauderdale, to serve all the addicted snowbirds, but it seems from all accounts that it's godawful. interestingly enough, reading some of Margaret Atwood's writings on her younger years, when she worked in a Swiss Chalet, almost made me give up the habit -- she gives some pretty grim descriptions.

    grapes and hops 2005

  • The little door of the chalet is locked at evening, and the children take care of it in turn.

    The Montessori Method Anne E. Montessori George 1912

  • If you build a chalet, that is your business, and if you choose cosmetic surgery, that is also your business.

    Health Care Policy, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • If you build a chalet, that is your business, and if you choose cosmetic surgery, that is also your business.

    Health Care Policy, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • What makes the chalet are the materials and the textiles.

    Taking Chalet Chic to the City Helen Kirwan-Taylor 2011

  • The chalet is a five-minute drive to a cable car for the Villars Ski Resort.

    All in the Skiing Family 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.