Parlor Meaning
/ˈpɑːlə/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe living room of a house, or a room for entertaining guests; a room for talking; a sitting-room or drawing room.
nounThe apartment in a monastery or nunnery where the residents are permitted to meet and converse with each other or with visitors from the outside.
Sentence Examples
Could you suggest a good beauty parlor near here?
Jiro was all smiles after he made a bundle at the pachinko parlor.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old house had a formal ____ for greeting visitors with tea and cookies.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The guests were invited to wait in the ____ while the host prepared refreshments in the kitchen.
Word Origin & History
Inherited from Middle English parlour, from Old French parleor, parloir, parleoir, from the verb parler (“to speak”); compare Medieval Latin parlātōrium. Doublet of parloir.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
"Immediately at hand was a small, mean public-house - one of those dingy establishments that seem to express, by their morbid and retiring appearance, a certain anxiety to escape the eye of the police - and into the parlour of this hostel Quin promptly led the way."
— 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 135:
"There had been a surprise party and some had entered his hotel parlour to get drink; before he was aware of it the accordion was being played in the room."
— 1957 July 4, The Nepean Times, Penrith, NSW, page 2, column 2:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old house had a formal ____ for greeting visitors with tea and cookies.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The guests were invited to wait in the ____ while the host prepared refreshments in the kitchen.