dormitory
[dawr-mi-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee]
- a building, as at a college, containing a number of private or semiprivate rooms for residents, usually along with common bathroom facilities and recreation areas.
- a room containing a number of beds and serving as communal sleeping quarters, as in an institution, fraternity house, or passenger ship.
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Origin of dormitory
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for dormitory
Contemporary Examples
The dormitory has since been converted into a small chapel, filled with polished wooden stools and a statue of Mary in the corner.
The one band that blasted out of dormitory windows onto grassy quadrangles in the snooty Northeast, no matter what, was REM.
Some have even been at the dormitory during the fall term looking for him.
Michael Nodianos of Steubenville ‘Rape’ Video Drops Out of OSU, Citing ThreatsWinston Ross
January 7, 2013
She lived in a dormitory, joining some 80 other swimmers; their practice sessions ran an exhausting five-and-a-half hours a day.
China’s Olympic Soul-Searching: What the Games Have Taught the CountryMelinda Liu, Paul Mooney
August 12, 2012
First came a rash of suicides, with Foxconn workers jumping off dormitory roofs.
Historical Examples
I must own that the poor man was not welcomed by his dormitory companions.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
The smooth walls were such as he might have found in his own dormitory.
RunawayWilliam Morrison
She lived in a dormitory, with a parlor for the reception of guests.
In a Little TownRupert Hughes
The dormitory monitor was sitting up in bed ready for them, too.
Follow My leaderTalbot Baines Reed
Almost hopeful she followed Sister Ignatia to the dormitory.
OliveDinah Maria Craik, (AKA Dinah Maria Mulock)
dormitory
- a large room, esp at a school or institution, containing several beds
- US a building, esp at a college or camp, providing living and sleeping accommodation
- (modifier) British denoting or relating to an area from which most of the residents commute to work (esp in the phrase dormitory suburb)
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Often (for senses 1, 2) shortened to: dorm
Word Origin
C15: from Latin dormītōrium, from dormīre to sleep
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for dormitory
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper