dormer
Americannoun
-
Also called dormer window. a vertical window in a projection built out from a sloping roof.
-
the entire projecting structure.
noun
Other Word Forms
- dormered adjective
Etymology
Origin of dormer
1585–95; < Middle French dormoir dormitory
Explanation
Almost like a picture in a pop-up book, a dormer is a peaked extension, with a window, that rises up from the roof of a house. The word dormer often refers to the window itself. A dormer, with roots in the French dormir (“to sleep”), often extends from an upstairs bedroom. The word has a sense of old-fashioned charm about it. Though you may occasionally still see a face peeking out from a dormer, the word brings to mind old stories such as the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, “The Snow Queen”: “They each had a little dormer window, and one only had to step over the gutter to get from one house to the other.”
Vocabulary lists containing dormer
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Built To Last: Architectural Parlance
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Architecture 101
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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.
A dormer is a roofed structure for a window.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 30, 2023
Stone, shutters and dormer windows bring colonial style to the exterior, and inside, the grand foyer showcases a Paul R. Williams trademark: the spiral staircase.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 11, 2022
Here’s a partial list of things that are not a roof: plumbing vent pipe, chimney, skylights, powered roof ventilator, attic or room dormer, a wall that’s next to and rises above a roof.
From Washington Post • Jul. 19, 2022
As their dormer bungalow falls into council tax band E, they won't be eligible for the £150 rebate being offered.
From BBC • Feb. 3, 2022
Werner likes to crouch in his dormer and imagine radio waves like mile-long harp strings, bending and vibrating over Zollverein, flying through forests, through cities, through walls.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
