water cooler

See synonyms for water cooler on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a container for holding drinking water that is cooled and drawn off by a faucet or spigot.

  2. a drinking fountain in which water is cooled by mechanical refrigeration.

Origin of water cooler

1
An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Words Nearby water cooler

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use water cooler in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for water cooler

water cooler

noun
  1. a device for cooling and dispensing drinking water

adjectivewater-cooler
  1. informal

    • indicating the kind of informal conversation among office staff that takes place at such a dispenser: water-cooler conversations

    • indicating an event, television programme, etc, sufficiently controversial or otherwise noteworthy to provide subject matter for such conversations: water-cooler television; a water-cooler moment

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012