Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An underground passageway, chamber, or series of chambers, sometimes having a roof of stone slabs, built as part of an ancient settlement or fort, especially in the British Isles.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A grotto or cavern under ground; a cellar.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete A grotto or cavern under ground.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaeology An
underground chamber orpassage sometimes used as astore , especially one associated withIron Age settlements.
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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Having fled from the king, Ma'aruf discovers a magic "souterrain" and a talismanic seal ring, by the aid of which he attains incalculable wealth.
The Life of Sir Richard Burton Wright, Thomas, 1859-1936 1906
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Having fled from the king, Ma'aruf discovers a magic "souterrain" and a talismanic seal ring, by the aid of which he attains incalculable wealth.
The Life of Sir Richard Burton Thomas Wright 1897
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He occasionally received similar letters from amateur archaeologists, and expected this dispatch to contain an earnest account of a previously undocumented ringfort or souterrain.
FALSE MERMAID ERIN HART 2010
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He occasionally received similar letters from amateur archaeologists, and expected this dispatch to contain an earnest account of a previously undocumented ringfort or souterrain.
FALSE MERMAID ERIN HART 2010
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Certain of the monks seized him by fraud and shut him up in a souterrain where he hath lain a long time.
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She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young lady forewent her spouse by the souterrain as he fared through the door and sat down in her upper chamber; 432 so as soon as he entered she asked him, “What hast thou seen?” and he answered,
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Hereupon in came the old woman and dragged my brother by his feet to a souterrain and threw him down upon a heap of dead bodies.
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Then he went away more disheartened than before and returned to his own house where he saw his wife sitting, for she had foregone him thither by the souterrain.
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Then he dragged the corpse by the feet to the souterrain and called out,
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Now when my son saw that I separated them, he secretly built this souterrain and furnished it and transported to it victuals, even as thou seest; and, when I had gone out a-sporting, came here with his sister and hid from me.
qms commented on the word souterrain
A basement's decidedly plain
And will for the many remain,
But go win the Lotto
And build you a grotto,
An oenophile's cave or souterrain.
July 23, 2017