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definitions

carrel

or car·rell

[kar-uh l]
noun
  1. Also called cubicle, stall. a small recess or enclosed area in a library stack, designed for individual study or reading.
  2. a table or desk with three sides extending above the writing surface to serve as partitions, designed for individual study, as in a library.

Origin of carrel

1585–95; variant spelling of carol enclosure
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for carrell

Historical Examples of carrell

  • Carrell was in identically the same position as the orator you speak of.

    Z. Marcas

    Honore de Balzac

  • On the eastern side is an additional wall, connected at its extremities with the first, enclosing ground for stables and carrell.

  • The carrell was placed so that it was closed at one end by one of the cloister windows and remained open at the other.

    The Story of Books

    Gertrude Burford Rawlings

British Dictionary definitions for carrell

carrel

carrell

noun
  1. a small individual study room or private desk, often in a library, where a student or researcher can work undisturbed

Word Origin for carrel

C16: a variant of carol

Carrel

noun
  1. Alexis (əˈlɛksɪs; French alɛksi). 1873–1944, French surgeon and biologist, active in the US (1905–39): developed a method of suturing blood vessels, making the transplantation of arteries and organs possible: Nobel prize for physiology or medicine 1912
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
Word Origin and History for carrell

carrel

n.

1590s, "study in a cloister," from Medieval Latin carula "small study in a cloister," of unknown origin; perhaps from Latin corolla "little crown, garland," used in various senses of "ring" (e.g. of Stonehenge: "þis Bretons renged about þe feld, þe karole of þe stones beheld," 1330); extended to precincts and spaces enclosed by rails, etc. Specific sense of "private cubicle in a library" is from 1919.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
carrell in Medicine

Carrel

[kə-rĕl′, kăr′əl]Alexis 1873-1944
  1. French-born American surgeon and biologist. He won a 1912 Nobel Prize for his work on vascular ligature and grafting of blood vessels and organs.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.