dormitory

[dawr-mi-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee]

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noun, plural dor·mi·to·ries.

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.

Origin of dormitory

1475–85; < Latin dormītōrium bedroom, equivalent to dormī(re) to sleep + -tōrium -tory²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for dormitory

bedroom, dorm

Examples from the Web for dormitory

Contemporary Examples of dormitory

The dormitory has since been converted into a small chapel, filled with polished wooden stools and a statue of Mary in the corner.
Did the Virgin Mary Warn Rwanda’s Holiest Town of the Genocide?
Nina Strochlic
April 20, 2014
The one band that blasted out of dormitory windows onto grassy quadrangles in the snooty Northeast, no matter what, was REM.
The Return of the Replacements: Here Comes a Regular
Elizabeth Wurtzel
September 13, 2013
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 Threats
Winston 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 Country
Melinda Liu, Paul Mooney
August 12, 2012
First came a rash of suicides, with Foxconn workers jumping off dormitory roofs.
Apple Makes Smart Move by Vowing to Improve China Labor Conditions
Dan Lyons
March 30, 2012

Historical Examples of dormitory

I must own that the poor man was not welcomed by his dormitory companions.
My Double Life
Sarah Bernhardt
The smooth walls were such as he might have found in his own dormitory.
Runaway
William Morrison
She lived in a dormitory, with a parlor for the reception of guests.
In a Little Town
Rupert Hughes
The dormitory monitor was sitting up in bed ready for them, too.
Follow My leader
Talbot Baines Reed
Almost hopeful she followed Sister Ignatia to the dormitory.
Olive
Dinah Maria Craik, (AKA Dinah Maria Mulock)

British Dictionary definitions for dormitory

dormitory

noun plural -ries

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)

Often (for senses 1, 2) shortened to: dorm

Word Origin for dormitory

C15: from Latin dormītōrium, from dormīre to sleep

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 dormitory

mid-15c., from Latin dormitorium "sleeping place," from dormire "to sleep" (see dormant). Old English had slæpern "dormitory," with ending as in barn.