scullery

American  

[skuhl-uh-ree, skuhl-ree] / ˈskʌl ə ri, ˈskʌl ri /

noun

Chiefly British.

sculleries plural

1. a small room or section of a pantry in which food is cleaned, trimmed, and cut into cooking portions before being sent to the kitchen.

2. a small room or section of a pantry or kitchen in which cooking utensils are cleaned and stored.

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scullery British  

/ ˈskʌlərɪ /

noun

1. a small room or part of a kitchen where washing up, vegetable preparation, etc is done

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sculleries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of scullery

1300–50; Middle English squillerye < Middle French escuelerie, equivalent to escuele dish (< Latin scutella, diminutive of scutra pan) + -rie -ry

Explanation

You're most likely to see the word scullery in an English novel, since it's a small room off the kitchen, usually in a very old, very British home. In the old days, maids cleaned dishes and utensils — and sometimes clothing — in the scullery, out of sight of their wealthy employers. In some parts of Britain, the word scullery is still used to mean "kitchen," although few people would claim to employ a "scullery maid," or a low-ranking member of a household staff. The root of the word is in doubt, but it probably comes from the Latin word for wooden platter, scutra, or the Old Norse skola, "to wash."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scullery sculleries

"It'd be nice for me to do something completely different. I'd love to do a comedy or I'd like to be a scullery maid in the kitchens in a period drama."

From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026

Dunk and Egg’s camaraderie fits the same tradition, proposing scullery maids can become queens.

From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026

Back when we first went five years ago, there were two levels, one of which involved schlepping your own snacks from the lobby like a “Downton Abbey” scullery maid.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2023

Creaky, cozy and atmospheric, it has wide-plank floors covered in rush matting, a scullery with a Belfast sink skirted with linen and a cabinet that once held powdered wigs.

From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2021

They ran through the echoing hall, along the corridor and into the kitchen, through the scullery, and into a cobbled court beyond it.

From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman

For the first time, some of the men who had toiled anonymously in the palace sculleries stepped into the throne room.

From Time Magazine Archive

Those pleasant hostesses and maidens seemed to be in charge of departments or on duty in wards, or kitchens, or sculleries.

From France at War On the Frontier of Civilization by Kipling, Rudyard

How often have I had to tell you, Timmy, not to go into other people's kitchens and sculleries?

From What Timmy Did by Lowndes, Marie Belloc

The kitchens, pantries, and sculleries are all on the same extensive scale, and fitted with all the large culinary requisites of first-class hotels.

From Man on the Ocean A Book about Boats and Ships by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)

We then inspect the offices for the Clerk of the Course himself; wine-cellars, beer-cellars, larders, sculleries, and kitchens, all as gigantically appointed, and as copiously furnished as if they formed part of an ogre's castle.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15, August, 1851 by Various

Related Words

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