drawer

American  

[drawr, draw-er] / drɔr, ˈdrɔ ər /

noun

• drawers
  plural

1. a sliding, lidless, horizontal compartment, as in a piece of furniture, that may be drawn out in order to gain access to it.

2. (used with a plural verb) drawers, an undergarment, with legs, that covers the lower part of the body.

3. a person or thing that draws.

4. Finance. a person who draws an order, draft, or bill of exchange.

5. Metalworking. a person who operates a drawbench.

6. a tapster.

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drawer British  

/ ˈdrɔːə /

noun

1. a person or thing that draws, esp a draughtsman

2. a person who draws a cheque See draw

3. a person who draws up a commercial paper

4. archaic a person who draws beer, etc, in a bar

5. a boxlike container in a chest, table, etc, made for sliding in and out

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drawer Idioms  

1. see top drawer.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• predrawer
  noun
• redrawer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• drawers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of drawer

1300–50, 1580–90 drawer for def. 1, 1560–70 drawer for def. 2; Middle English; see draw, -er ¹

Explanation

A drawer is a sliding compartment that fits into a dresser and is used for storage. You might keep socks in one drawer and t-shirts in another. Dressers have drawers, and so do other pieces of furniture, including desks, bureaus, and kitchen cabinets. Your kitchen drawers might be full of silverware, while the drawers in your office are a jumble of pens, paper clips, and Post-It notes. Drawer comes from the verb draw, from its "pull" meaning — the original idea of the word was that it's a container that's "drawn" out of a cabinet.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

drawer drawers

I was startled for a moment when I opened my top desk drawer and saw the contents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

If you’re a fan of Croatia, I think you might want to stop reading here and go do something less stressful, like operating a jackhammer, or wrestling a sock drawer full of cobras.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

Rare dinosaur bone, stuck in a drawer for decades.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026

Elon Musk probably has a T-shirt in the back of a drawer emblazoned with the line.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

I moved out of his way, and he took a turn at jiggling and wriggling the drawer.

From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler

Since retiring, we have settled into a slow-and-steady approach to downsizing, habitually scrutinizing drawers and closets and storage boxes anytime we open them, looking around rooms for little things to pass along.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

She commonly sees kitchens where infrequently used gadgets take up "prime real estate"; things which could be stored in drawers, cupboards or even the loft, if it's something really gathering dust.

From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026

No pet dragons, though — just a baby unicorn, representing the fantasy mascot ruling many of that era’s pre-teen accessory drawers.

From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026

Modern people no longer store the substance of their lives in desk drawers or filing cabinets.

From Slate ● May 20, 2026

I run to Willa’s room and grab things from her drawers.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin