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 or passage sometimes used as a store, especially one associated with Iron Age settlements.

Etymologies

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

[Earlier, any underground passage or storeroom, from French, from Old French, sozterrain (formed on the model of Latin subterrāneus, underground) : soz, under (from Latin subtus, from sub; see upo in Indo-European roots) + terre, earth (from Latin terra; see ters- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French souterrain, from sous ‘under’ + terrain ‘ground’.

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Examples

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • Certain of the monks seized him by fraud and shut him up in a souterrain where he hath lain a long time.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • 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,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • 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.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • 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.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Then he dragged the corpse by the feet to the souterrain and called out,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • 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.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

Comments

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  • 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