boiler room

American  

noun

1. a room in a building, ship, etc., that houses one or more steam boilers.

2. Slang.

   1. a place where illicit brokers engage in high-pressure selling, over the telephone, of securities of a highly speculative nature or of dubious value.

   2. any room or business where salespeople, bill collectors, solicitors for charitable donations, etc., conduct an intensive telephone campaign, especially in a fast-talking or intimidating manner.

---

boiler room British  

noun

1. any room in a building (often in the basement) that contains a boiler for central heating, etc

2. the part of a steam ship that houses the boilers and furnaces

3. the room or department in which the real work of an organization goes on unseen

4. ( chiefly US ) an office used by a team of telephone salespeople, esp of stocks and shares, operating under high pressure

5. 1. a fraudulent scheme in which investors are encouraged to buy non-existent, worthless, or over-priced shares

   2. ( as modifier )

      a boiler-room scam

---

Other Word Forms

• boiler-room adjective

Example Sentences

“I mean, I have never even heard of a boiler room” before coming to work there, she said.

From Los Angeles Times

The team inside the boiler room includes local workers and Naomi Pearmine, a Marine Engineer.

From BBC

The pool’s mechanical room looks like the boiler room of an ocean liner — with giant tanks that purify pool water and another system that stabilizes the temperature.

From Los Angeles Times

Imagine the visual explosion of the Sphere in Las Vegas with the intimacy of a Boiler Room set, all inside a cube-shaped structure.

From Los Angeles Times

For Katz, it led to steady work that included playing Bond villain Billy Ray Cobb in “A Time to Kill,” a cutthroat stockbroker in “Boiler Room,” a hitman in Soderbergh’s “The Limey” and a theater actor who portrays Adolf Hitler in the director’s 2002 film “Full Frontal.”

From Los Angeles Times