Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Parlor?

\Par"lor\, n. [OE. parlour, parlur, F. parloir, LL. parlatorium. See {Parley}.] [Written also {parlour}.] A room for business or social conversation, for the reception of guests, etc. Specifically: (a) The apartment in a monastery or nunnery where the inmates are permitted to meet and converse with each other, or with visitors and friends from without. --Piers Plowman. (b) In large private houses, a sitting room for the family and for familiar guests, -- a room for less formal uses than the drawing-room. Esp., in modern times, the dining room of a house having few apartments, as a London house, where the dining parlor is usually on the ground floor. (c) Commonly, in the United States, a drawing-room, or the room where visitors are received and entertained. Note: ``In England people who have a drawing-room no longer call it a parlor, as they called it of old and till recently.'' --Fitzed. Hall. {Parlor car}. See {Palace car}, under {Car}.