scullery

American  

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

noun

Chiefly British.

plural

sculleries

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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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

Scullery maid, that was one thing I would never be.

From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wash-house, Scullery, Coal-house, &c., a Staircase of carved Oak, Walls and Ceilings of the same beautifully ornamented Gothic Architecture. 

From The "Ladies of Llangollen" as Sketched by Many Hands; with Notices of Other Objects of Interest in "That Sweetest of Vales" by Hicklin, John

"Scullery or Between Maid required immediately for Derbyshire; wages �218."

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, May 30, 1917 by Seaman, Owen, Sir

Scullery, skul′ėr-i, n. the place for dishes and other kitchen utensils.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

Scullery maids were machines who carried coal scuttles and made fires.

From A Little Princess; being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time by Burnett, Frances Hodgson

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