Definitions

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

  • noun A space that is or may be occupied.
  • noun An area separated by walls or partitions from other similar parts of the structure or building in which it is located.
  • noun The people present in such an area.
  • noun Living quarters; lodgings.
  • noun Suitable opportunity or scope.
  • intransitive verb To occupy a room; lodge.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Wide; spacious; roomy.
  • Far; at a distance; wide, in space or extent; in nautical use, off from the wind.
  • noun A deep-blue dye like indigo, obtained by maceration from the shrub Strobilanthes flaccidifolius (Ruellia indigotica, etc.); also, the plant itself, which is native and cultivated in India, Burma, and China.
  • noun Dandruff.
  • To occupy a room or rooms; lodge: as, he rooms at No. 7.
  • noun In coal-mining, a breast; a chamber.
  • noun In salt-making, one of the large stationary pans in which the brine from a salt-well is placed to allow the water to evaporate.
  • noun In wood ship-building, the empty space between two adjacent frames of a wooden ship.
  • noun Space; compass; extent of space, great or small: as, here is room enough for an army.
  • noun Space or place unoccupied or unobstructed; place for reception of any thing or person; accommodation for entering or for moving about: as, to make room for a carriage to pass.
  • noun Fit occasion; opportunity; freedom to admit or indulge: as, in this case there is no room for doubt or for argument.
  • noun Place or station once occupied by another; stead, as in succession or substitution: as, one magistrate or king comes in the room of a former one.
  • noun Any inclosure or division separated by partitions from other parts of a house or other structure; a chamber; an apartment; a compartment; a cabin, or the like: as, a drawing-room; a bedroom; a state-room in a ship; an engine-room in a factory; a harness-room in a stable.
  • noun Particular place or station; a seat.
  • noun A box or seat in a theater.
  • noun Family; company.
  • noun Office; post; position.
  • noun A fishing-station; also, an establishment for curing fish.
  • noun A heading or working-place in a coal-mine.
  • noun The stomach: as, to fill the blubber-room (to take a hearty meal). [Whalers' slang.]
  • noun Synonyms Capacity, scope, latitude, range, sweep, swing, play.

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

  • intransitive verb To occupy a room or rooms; to lodge.
  • adjective obsolete Spacious; roomy.
  • noun Unobstructed spase; space which may be occupied by or devoted to any object; compass; extent of place, great or small
  • noun A particular portion of space appropriated for occupancy; a place to sit, stand, or lie; a seat.
  • noun Especially, space in a building or ship inclosed or set apart by a partition; an apartment or chamber.
  • noun obsolete Place or position in society; office; rank; post; station; also, a place or station once belonging to, or occupied by, another, and vacated.
  • noun Possibility of admission; ability to admit; opportunity to act; fit occasion.
  • noun (Shipbuilding) the distance from one side of a rib to the corresponding side of the next rib; space being the distance between two ribs, in the clear, and room the width of a rib.
  • noun to withdraw; to leave or provide space unoccupied for others to pass or to be seated.
  • noun to open a space, way, or passage; to remove obstructions; to give room.

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

  • adjective Wide; spacious; roomy.
  • adverb Far; at a distance; wide in space or extent.
  • adverb nautical Off from the wind.
  • noun countable With possessive pronoun: one's bedroom.
  • verb To reside, especially as a boarder or tenant.

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

  • verb live and take one's meals at or in
  • noun the people who are present in a room
  • noun opportunity for
  • noun space for movement
  • noun an area within a building enclosed by walls and floor and ceiling

Etymologies

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

[Middle English roum, from Old English rūm; see reuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English rome, from Old English rūme ("widely, spaciously, roomily, far and wide, so as to extend over a wide space, liberally, extensively, amply, abundantly, in a high degree, without restriction or encumbrance, without the pressure of care, light-heartedly, without obstruction, plainly, clearly, in detail"). Cognate with Dutch ruim ("amply", adv).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English roum, rom, rum, from Old English rūm ("roomy, spacious, ample, extensive, large, open, unencumbered, unoccupied, temporal, long, extended, great, liberal, unrestricted, unfettered, clear, loose, free from conditions, free from occupation, not restrained within due limits, lax, far-reaching, abundant, noble, august"), from Proto-Germanic *rūmaz (“roomy, spacious”), from Proto-Indo-European *rowǝ- (“free space”). Cognate with Scots roum ("spacious, roomy"), Dutch ruim ("roomy, spacious, wide"), Danish rum ("wide, spacious"), Icelandic rúmur ("spacious").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English roum, from Old English rūm ("room, space"), from Proto-Germanic *rūman (“room”), from Proto-Indo-European *rowǝ- (“free space”). Cognate with Dutch ruim ("space"), German Raum ("space, interior space"), Danish rum ("space, locality"), Norwegian rom ("space"), Swedish rum ("space, location"), Latin rūs ("country, field, farm"). More at rural.

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Examples

  • In some hospitals it is customary to transport the woman from the labour room to a specific “delivery room” at the onset of the second stage.

    4. CARE DURING THE SECOND STAGE OF LABOUR 1996

  • Upstairs were the bedrooms; “mother-and-father’s room” the largest; a smaller room for one or two sons, another for one or two daughters; each of these rooms containing a double bed, a “washstand, ” a “bureau, ” a wardrobe, a little table, a rocking-chair, and often a chair or two that had been slightly damaged downstairs, but not enough to justify either the expense of repair or decisive abandonment in the attic.

    Chapter 1 1918

  • Still surveying the room, she moves here and there, and, her eyes lighting on the box of flowers, she goes to the door of_ VIDA'S _room and speaks to her.

    Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: The New York Idea Langdon Elwyn Mitchell 1898

  • ***duz teh kwazee kitteh mad dash frum room to room****

    His only superpower was - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • * doctors come running withh a bed and take nick to a room and joe selena and demi go to the waiting room*

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

  • See ge-risne. ge-rȳman, w. v.: 1) _to make room for, prepare, provide room_: pret. pl.

    Beowulf Robert Sharp 1879

  • See ge-risne. ge-rýman, w. v.: 1) _to make room for, prepare, provide room_: pret. pl.

    Beowulf Robert Sharp 1879

  • Fifteen booths were arranged around the sides of the hall, with a five-foot aisle between the booths and the partition separating the main room from the veranda.

    2009 October « Beachwood Historical Alliance 2009

  • Fifteen booths were arranged around the sides of the hall, with a five-foot aisle between the booths and the partition separating the main room from the veranda.

    Creation of the Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company « Beachwood Historical Alliance 2009

  • Fifteen booths were arranged around the sides of the hall, with a five-foot aisle between the booths and the partition separating the main room from the veranda.

    2009 October 01 « Beachwood Historical Alliance 2009

Comments

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  • Heard a musician aquaintance use this word to describe the arena or venue of his performance. "They've got a good room there; it was a great gig."

    October 6, 2007