garage
Pluralgarages
Pluralgarages
Formsgarages, garaging, garaged
- 1A building, or part of one, where a car or cars are kept together with tools and other odds and ends.
The movers stacked the extra furniture in the garage until the new house was ready.
She converted half of the garage into a small woodworking shop.
UsageUsually in the garage: park in the garage, keep tools in the garage.
- 2A workshop that carries out servicing and repairs on cars.
Her sedan spent three days at the garage before the mechanic found the leak.
Grandpa still trusts the little garage on Main Street more than any dealership.
UsageUsually take the car to the garage, or it is at the garage.
Note
Here the garage is where the mechanic works, not where the car sleeps. Margery Allingham's The China Governess (1962) lines a main road with "vast garages," which are roadside businesses on an industrial scale rather than private sheds.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Margery Allingham wrote The China Governess. fadedpage.com
- The novel's narration places “vast garages” beside a main road in an industrial setting. fadedpage.com
- 3A raw style of guitar rock associated with amateur bands playing in basements and garages; also called garage rock.
The club books garage on Thursday nights, all fuzz pedals and shouted choruses.
His record collection runs heavy on sixties garage and early punk.
Note
This genre takes its name from the rehearsal space, since amateur bands practicing in basements and garages gave the style its name. Keep it apart from the British dance-music style, which shares the name but not the guitars.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The genre’s name comes from amateur bands rehearsing in garages. encyclopediaofarkansas.net
- British garage is a separate electronic dance-music genre. en.wikipedia.org
They started out as a garage band playing friends' birthday parties.
The album has a scrappy garage sound, all fuzz and feedback.
- 4A style of electronic dance music related to house, marked by warped and time-stretched sounds; known as UK garage.
Pirate radio stations across London pushed garage into the mainstream in the late nineties.
She produces garage with chopped vocals over a shuffling two-step beat.
Note
The second musical garage is British and electronic: a relative of house music built on warped, time-stretched sounds. The setting of the conversation, a dance floor rather than a rock club, usually tells you which one is meant.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- UK garage is a British electronic music genre. en.wikipedia.org
- UK garage is related to house music and features warped, time-stretched sounds. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 5To store something, especially a vehicle, in a garage.
Collectors often garage their classic cars to protect the paint from sun damage.
The delivery vans are garaged overnight at the company depot.
Similarstore, park, house, keep
Note
Wodehouse's narrator in Jeeves in the Offing (1960) "garaged the car" before going indoors. Nancy Walker, writing in Gay Community News in 1979, hints at a cost. Cars in big cities are nuisances "unless you have enough money to afford to garage the beasts."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- P. G. Wodehouse wrote Jeeves in the Offing, first published as a book in 1960. en.wikipedia.org
- The narrator says he garaged the car before going to Aunt Dahlia’s room. en.wiktionary.org
- Nancy Walker wrote the quoted words in Gay Community News in 1979; Wiktionary identifies the article as “A Case of Mistaken Identity,” dated April 28. en.wiktionary.org
- 6A filling station where drivers buy fuel for their vehicles; a gas station.
They pulled into a garage just off the highway when the fuel light came on.
The village garage stayed open late so truckers could fill their tanks.
UsageUsually stop at a garage or pull into a garage for fuel.
Note
For many Commonwealth speakers, pulling into a garage simply means stopping for fuel. Because the repair-shop meaning is also everyday there, context has to tell you whether a garage is somewhere to fill the tank or somewhere to fix the engine.
- 7A shed or building for housing an airship, airplane, or launchable missile; a hangar.
- 8A siding on a canal; a space to the side of the channel where boats can move aside to let others pass.
Showing meanings only.
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Origin
Borrowed from French garage ("keeping under cover, protection, shelter"), from the verb garer ("to keep under cover, dock, guard"). This traces back through Old French and Old Norse roots, probably to Proto-Germanic *warōną or *warjaną ("to guard, ward off") and ultimately a Proto-Indo-European root *wer-.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- English garage was borrowed from French garage, with the stated meanings. en.wiktionary.org
- French garage derives from garer, with the stated meanings. en.wiktionary.org
- The derivation passes through Old French. en.wiktionary.org
- Old Norse contributed to the derivation. en.wiktionary.org