wainscot
Americannoun
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wood, especially oak and usually in the form of paneling, for lining interior walls.
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the lining itself, especially as covering the lower portion of a wall.
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a dado, especially of wood, lining an interior wall.
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British. oak of superior quality and cut, imported from the Baltic countries for fine woodwork.
verb (used with object)
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wainscots,
present (3rd person singular)
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wainscoted,
past participle, past
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wainscotted,
past participle, past (especially British)
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wainscoting,
present participle
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wainscotting
present participle (especially British)
noun
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Also called: wainscoting, wainscotting. a lining applied to the walls of a room, esp one of wood panelling
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the lower part of the walls of a room, esp when finished in a material different from the upper part
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fine quality oak used as wainscot
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wainscotsimple
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wainscotssimple
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have wainscotedperfect
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have wainscottedperfect
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has wainscotedperfect
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has wainscottedperfect
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am wainscotingprogressive
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am wainscottingprogressive
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are wainscotingprogressive
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are wainscottingprogressive
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is wainscotingprogressive
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is wainscottingprogressive
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have been wainscotingperfect progressive
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have been wainscottingperfect progressive
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has been wainscotingperfect progressive
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has been wainscottingperfect progressive
Past
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wainscotedsimple
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wainscottedsimple
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had wainscotedperfect
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had wainscottedperfect
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was wainscotingprogressive
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was wainscottingprogressive
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were wainscotingprogressive
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were wainscottingprogressive
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had been wainscotingperfect progressive
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had been wainscottingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wainscot
1325–75; Middle English < Middle Low German or Middle Dutch wagenschot, equivalent to wagen wain + schot (< ?)
Explanation
Wainscot is a type of wood paneling on a room's walls. Wainscot is often made from oak. This word's meaning is hard to figure out from looking at it, but the wains part is from a Dutch word that meant "wagon" and the scot part probably comes from a word that means "partition." Put them together, and you've got a word for wood paneling in a room: usually the kind that goes half-way up the wall. Originally, wainscot was a type of foreign oak imported to Britain for use in paneling, before it came to mean the paneling itself.
Vocabulary lists containing wainscot
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:
Named for its historic 1920s Chateauesque building, Castle is a treasure box of prewar charm: lattice windows, crown-molding, wainscot, Art Deco tile.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
Install them floor to ceiling or only halfway up as a wainscot, then cap it with a wood chair rail.
From Time ● Mar. 12, 2015
The walls are covered with red silk damask and decorated with wainscot panelling.
From Economist ● Sep. 18, 2014
Four bedroom, two baths, 2,300 square-feet; four fireplaces, grand entrance hall, wood floors, high ceilings, wainscot walls, clawfoot tub, walk-in pantry, updated kitchen, ceiling fans, central heat and air conditioning.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 4, 2014
They could hear the wood splintering under his teeth—a sound like a mouse in a shed wainscot at midnight.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
The wainscots were of Irish yew, and the ceilings of cypress.
From The Great Book-Collectors by Charles Isaac Elton
It had the high wainscots, the broad staircases, the carved cornices, and all the other blessed old peculiarities of the age in which it was built, which we irreverently have improved away.
From My Unknown Chum by Charles Bullard Fairbanks
Though she had had time to grow accustomed to scratchings inside the wainscots at the Manor, she could not overcome her dread of rats.
From The Manor House School by Arthur A. Dixon
Dirtied painted wainscots may be cleaned by wetting a sponge in the liquor, then dipping it in a little fine clean sand, and afterwards rubbing the wainscot with it.
From The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families by Mary Eaton
Note the words that indicate changes in domestic customs; such as testers, joint stools, wainscots, house raising.
From McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey
As if to underscore the radical turn these artists were making, the paintings are hung on an ornate plum-red wallpaper in a wainscoted gallery that harks back to the Grand Palais’s look.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Inside, with its wainscoted white walls and dark oak floors, it’s as luxurious and well-appointed as a Four Seasons hotel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
The gray-on-gray wainscoted dining room is quite pleasant, and so, too, looked the outdoor patio on such a fine summertime’s evening.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 22, 2023
The man famous for drafting Daniel Jones sat in what looked to be a barren, wainscoted attic with a big-screen TV set atop a plastic folding table.
From Slate ● Apr. 23, 2020
She led Desdemona down a long, wainscoted corridor, through a telephone operator’s office, and into another darker hallway.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
With a globe on his desk and roll-down maps on the wall of his elegantly wainscotted office, he could be found high in the iconic Chrysler Building in the heart of New York City.
From Salon ● Mar. 22, 2016
Mrs. Latournelle received Mary in a wainscotted parlour, hung round with miniatures and pieces of framed needlework done in chenille, representing tombs and weeping willows.
From The Fairchild Family by Florence M. Rudland
For indeed it seemed as though Rudolph the Great, whose picture frowned down upon them from the wainscotted wall, walked once more in their midst.
From The Traitors by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
The room used for lessons was a wide, pleasant place, rather low in the roof, plainly panelled and wainscotted in dark oak, with a single line of dull gold beading running about it high up.
From The Dew of Their Youth by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
In an old wainscotted parlour, we found the two ladies in close proximity and conversation.
From Daisy Burns (Volume 2) by Julia Kavanagh
Other impressive features found in the space included original teak plank flooring, an original marble staircase, and original picture moldings and wainscoting.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026
Inside, chocolate brown wood is everywhere: walls, beams, window sills, paneling, wainscoting, furniture, not to mention built-in cabinets, benches and window seats.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2025
An elegant wainscoting of polished carbon fiber stretches across the four doors, accented with aluminum bezels and wire-thin LED lighting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025
And instead of recessed wall niches, she added shallow, surface-mounted bookshelves over the room’s wainscoting and wallpaper.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2023
Still, they would be impressed, he hoped, by the lovely bay windows, the shining parquet floors, the impressive winding staircase, the wooden wainscoting, as they sipped champagne and dipped samosas in chutney.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Cooke’s friends donated a truckload of 2-by-3s, and he made the wainscotting out of wood from an old fence.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2022
They fixed up the twenty-six-seat dining room, putting in wainscotting and a bar made from a farmhouse floor.
From The New Yorker ● May 20, 2019
They might be in the wainscotting, but they’re putting it out there.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2014
We are – and you brought us out of the wainscotting like so many freaky old bastards.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 22, 2013
Upon removing a portion of the modern wainscotting in the main reception room, there was discovered an ancient fireplace, made of roughly hewn blocks of granite.
From Famous Firesides of French Canada by Mary Wilson Alloway
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.
