bottom drawer

American

[drawr] / drɔr /

noun

British.

any drawer used for a hope chest.

bottom drawer British

noun

US and Canadian equivalent: hope chest. a young woman's collection of clothes, linen, cutlery, etc, in anticipation of marriage

"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

Etymology

Origin of bottom drawer

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

bottom drawer

"I don't want it to be a doorstop or in the bottom drawer, I want it to be on the mantelpiece."

From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2025

The left of the bottom drawer is all cheese and dairy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

The heart-stories behind the mailboxes are discreetly pasted, painted, hammered and welded into their forms like love letters secreted into the false bottom drawer of a writing desk.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 14, 2023

He was born Thomas Sean Connery on Aug. 25, 1930, and his crib was the bottom drawer of a dresser in a cold-water flat next door to a brewery.

From New York Times ● Oct. 31, 2020

I carefully stashed my equipment at the very back of my bottom drawer in the bureau we shared.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023