dormer
Americannoun
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Also called dormer window. a vertical window in a projection built out from a sloping roof.
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the entire projecting structure.
noun
Other Word Forms
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.
"Northern Ireland is a beautiful place, full of brilliant poets and musicians and finally we're accepted as that," said Dormer.
From BBC • Dec. 29, 2023
Still, Dormer said, “if it wasn’t for Shannan Gilbert’s disappearance, we may never have found the remains of the other victims.”
From Washington Times • Jul. 15, 2023
Richard Dormer is given a cameo in which the bug-eyed intensity he brought to “Fortitude” and “The Watch” gives a comic twist to some obligatory exposition.
From New York Times • Jun. 20, 2023
Acrylic folding chairs are a great way to add inexpensive but functional seating, Dormer says.
From Washington Post • May 10, 2022
Joe Carp from the bakery brot me a chokilat cake from Mr Dormer and the folks at the bakery and they hope I get better soon.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
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.
