lobby

Plurallobbies

Formslobbies, lobbying, lobbied

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The entrance hall or reception area of a building, often serving as a passageway or waiting space.

   Guests gathered in the marble lobby before the gala began.

   The office lobby featured a reception desk and several seating areas.

   Similarfoyer, vestibule, hall, entrance, reception

   Note

   Behind the entrance hall stands a roofed walkway. Medieval Latin lobia meant a portico, covered way or gallery, and it was borrowed from a Frankish word for an arbor or shelter related to Old English lēaf. That makes lobby a doublet of leaf, lodge and loggia. The sense keeps the old idea of a passage you move through or wait in before reaching the rooms beyond.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A group of people sharing an interest who try to influence public officials in favor of their cause.

   The pharmaceutical lobby spent millions trying to shape the new regulations.

   Environmental lobbies have grown more organized over the past decade.

   Similarfaction, interest, group

   Note

   Politics names a lobby by the interest it serves: the tobacco lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby, an environmental lobby. The noun stands for the group as a whole, and the individuals in it are lobbyists. Special interest comes close in meaning. The activity itself belongs to the verb, so a lobby lobbies.

3. 3
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To try to influence a public official or decision-maker in favor of a particular opinion or cause.

   The union lobbied lawmakers to raise the minimum wage.

   Several charities lobby on behalf of homeless families.

   Similarpetition, pressure, press, urge, campaign

   Note

   A verb with two constructions, both common. Used transitively, it takes the person or body being pressed: Schumpeter in The Economist (2013) writes that businesspeople "have every right to lobby governments." Used intransitively, it takes for plus the cause, as in lobby hard for restrictions. The y changes in the inflected forms lobbies and lobbied, but it stays in lobbying.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The part of a legislative hall not reserved for the official business of the assembly, where outsiders may gather.

   Petitioners crowded the lobby hoping to buttonhole a senator between sessions.

   Journalists mingled in the lobby waiting for the vote to conclude.

   Similaranteroom, antechamber

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The waiting area in front of a bank of elevators, where people stand before the doors open.

   She stepped out of the elevator into a quiet upper-floor lobby.

   The building's ground-floor elevator lobby was lined with mirrors.

   Similarlanding, hallway, foyer

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A virtual space in a video game where players can chat and find opponents before a match begins.

   Everyone gathered in the multiplayer lobby while the host set up the match.

   The game dropped players into a shared lobby to form teams.

   Note

   Gaming borrowed the waiting room and made it social. Here the lobby is where players talk, form teams and get matched with opponents before play starts. That sets it apart from the online-meeting waiting room, where people simply wait to be let in. The usual phrasings are multiplayer lobby, game lobby and in the lobby.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A virtual waiting area where people attending an online meeting stay until an authorized person admits them.

   The presenter kept attendees in the lobby until the session was ready to begin.

   Two participants appeared in the lobby, waiting for the organizer to let them in.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   In kabaddi, the margin running along either side of the playing field, bordering the main court area.

   The groundskeepers marked each lobby with its own line running the full length of the kabaddi court.

   The defender forced the raider toward the lobby near the sideline.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A confined enclosure for cattle near the farmyard, formed by hedges, trees, or other fencing.

   At dusk the herd was penned in the lobby beside the barn.

   They patched the gaps in the lobby's hedges before winter.

   Similarpen, enclosure, fold, corral

   Note

   A rural lobby is an outdoor shelter, and it stays close to the Frankish word for arbor or shelter behind the entrance-hall sense. Like that sheltering place, it is screened by greenery, walled in by hedges and trees. Cowyard and paddock come near it, but a lobby is specifically a confined spot for cattle beside the farmyard.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    On an old-fashioned ship, a compartment or passageway in the forward part of the cabin beneath the quarter-deck.

    The midshipman waited in the lobby outside the great cabin for the captain's summons.

    A lantern swung in the cramped lobby beneath the quarter-deck.

    Note

    Shipboard language kept the word's idea of a passage leading to the rooms that matter. On board, that passage lies at the forward end of the cabin, under the quarter-deck. The term belongs to the layout of old-fashioned ships, so it turns up mainly in descriptions of older vessels and the officers' quarters at the stern.

11. 11
    noundialectalWest Midlandsuncountable

    Lobscouse, a thick stew of meat and vegetables cooked slowly together.

    Our nan always cooked lobby on a Monday, using up the meat left over from the Sunday roast.

    The café on the high street serves a thick bowl of lobby with crusty bread and pickled red cabbage.

    Similarlobscouse, scouse

    Note

    An unrelated word that happens to share the spelling. It is a West Midlands clipping of lobscouse and has no tie to the hallway sense or its Latin past. As the name of a dish it is uncountable and takes no article: someone cooks lobby for tea, not a lobby. It is a regional word, best kept to speech or writing with a West Midlands setting.

Showing meanings only. Show all 11