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

The sloth’s nubbly nylon “fur” does the scrubbing, its front paws grasp a handy hanging cord and a wan, stitched-in half smile serves as a reminder that the scullery duty is only temporary.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2023

Of course, that life-changing event ends quite differently than the one remembered by a generation raised on Lesley Ann Warren mooning and crooning in her attractively appointed scullery.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2021

“Sweet of you,” she replied, and she smiled as she left the scullery.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

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

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

Will a water tap run in your sculleries, if there is no pipe that joins it with the source of supply?

From Expositions of Holy Scripture: the Acts by Maclaren, Alexander

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

There are very few establishments large enough to indulge in the luxury of a servants'-hall, and sculleries and pantries are much smaller than in England.

From Town Life in Australia by Twopeny, Richard Ernest Nowell

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