noun
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a sanitary fitting, esp one fixed to a wall, used by men for urination
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a room containing urinals
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any vessel for holding urine prior to its disposal
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of urinal
1225–75; Middle English < Old French < Late Latin ūrīnāle, neuter of ūrīnalis of urine. See urine, -al 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The piece proved an immediate hit, with critics comparing it to ready-made master Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 porcelain urinal, “Fountain.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Each of the units, known as Thrones, includes a toilet, an urinal and a sink with an ADA-accessible ramp.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2025
His inquest heard it took two hours for a crane to arrive to lift the urinal off him.
From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2025
Smoove: I don’t know if you guys have ever been through this, but I was at a urinal …
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
I made it to the blessed urinal, which was really just a long, waist-high sheet of tin screwed to the wall with a trough sort of thing below it.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
In the case of public toilets, such a justification "does not appear to exist" since the cost of building, maintaining and cleaning cubicles and urinals is basically the same, the professor said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
I base this not on any grand political theory but on how many times I stood next to members of Congress at urinals at DCA during my years living in D.C.
From Slate ● Nov. 7, 2025
The urinals — see the particularly majestic Deco “Radio” Adamsez iteration in the gentleman’s cloakroom of the old Derry and Toms building, Kensington — elevate the form to art even before Duchamp.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2024
Other additions to the 17,500-seat arena include five full-sized courts and 1,160 toilets and urinals to keep fans in their seats.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2024
That dormitory had once been coeducational, there were still urinals in one of the washrooms on our floor.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
