room

Less common meanings

6. 6
   live as renterverbintransitive

   To live somewhere, especially as a boarder or tenant.

   Students often room together to save money on rent.

   He decided to room above the tavern for the winter.

   UsageUse with for the person, at or in for the place: room together, room with a friend at college.

   Similarlodge, board, live, stay

   Note

   Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951) has "this guy that roomed right next to me." The word suggests renting or sharing rather than owning, which suits students and boarders. A homeowner lives in a house but rarely rooms there. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • J. D. Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye, first published in 1951. hachettebookgroup.com
   • The quoted wording occurs in The Catcher in the Rye. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountableplural

   A set of rooms lived in by someone; a person's lodgings.

   He kept rooms above the bakery for nearly a decade.

   After the war he took rooms in a quiet street near the British Museum.

   UsageMost often without an article: took rooms near the museum, kept rooms above a shop.

   Similarlodgings, quarters, accommodation, digs

   Note

   A plural that names a single home. Rooms here means a person's lodgings: a set of rented rooms treated as one dwelling. The verb to room, "to lodge" carries the same tenant's idea of living in space that belongs to someone else.

8. 8
   assign housingverbtransitive

   To assign someone to a room, or allocate a room to a person.

   The hospital had to room the two patients in separate wings.

   The hotel roomed the wedding party on the same floor.

   UsageOften in the passive: guests were roomed together on one floor.

   Similarhouse, lodge, accommodate, billet

   Note

   The language of whoever does the placing: hotels, dormitories, hospitals. It works naturally in the passive, as when Arthur Frederick Ide writes in AIDS Hysteria (1986) of the air "in which the patient was roomed." Compare the intransitive "lodge" verb: there the subject is the lodger, while here the subject is whoever assigns the room. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Arthur Frederick Ide wrote AIDS Hysteria. openlibrary.org
   • First published in 1986; 1988 is the second edition, according to the author's own bibliographic citation. arthuride.wordpress.com
   • AIDS Hysteria contains the quoted words about air in which a patient was roomed. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

   In old use, a place or position, such as an office or rank, or the place of someone another person stands in for.

   A ram was accepted as a vicarious sacrifice in room of the royal victim.

   1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough

   Note

   Here room means the spot one thing fills instead of another, and it survives mainly in the phrase in room of or in the room of. The 1900 edition of James George Frazer's The Golden Bough still offers a ram "in room of the royal victim." Because the sense is obsolete, a modern writer should use in place of or instead of, and keep in room of for reading older prose. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Room historically meant a place or stead; this sense is labelled obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
   • James George Frazer wrote The Golden Bough, and a second edition appeared in 1900. en.wikipedia.org
   • The 1900 edition describes a ram replacing the royal victim and contains the quoted wording. archive.org
10. 10
    furniture setnouncountable or uncountable

    An amount of furniture sufficient to furnish one room.

    The warehouse shipped a full room of furniture to each new tenant.

    When her aunt downsized, she gave us an entire room of furniture, sofa and all.

    UsageOften a room of furniture, or a number with worth: three rooms' worth.

    Note

    A buyer's measure: furniture counted by the room it fills. In August Wilson's Fences (1986), a character buying on credit asks for "three rooms worth." That construction, a number of rooms followed by worth, is the natural home of this sense. Its setting is buying and selling furniture, where a room of furniture means a complete set. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • A room can mean enough furniture to furnish one room. en.wiktionary.org
    • August Wilson wrote Fences. penguinrandomhouse.com
    • Fences was first published in 1986; 1985 is its premiere year. cdn.penguin.co.uk
    • A character asks for three rooms worth of furniture while describing a purchase on credit; the speaker is Troy Maxson. media.milwaukeerep.com
11. 11
    adjectiveobsolete

    Wide and spacious; offering plenty of space.

    Note

    A separate adjective with its own ancestor: Old English rūm, "roomy, spacious, ample, open." It lived on in dialect while standard English let it go. Roomy, built on the noun, now does its job, so the bare adjective belongs to historical or dialect writing. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The adjective descends separately from Old English rūm. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old English rūm meant roomy, spacious, ample and open. bosworthtoller.com
    • The adjective survived in dialect after becoming obsolete in standard English. en.wiktionary.org
    • Roomy is formed from the noun room. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    adverbobsolete

    Far away or far apart, or extending over a wide space.

    Note

    The adverb has its own Old English source, rūme, "widely, far and wide, amply, without restriction." That makes it a sibling of the "spacious" adjective rather than an offshoot of the noun. In dialect it means far off or widely spread, where standard English says far or wide. Like the adjective, it compares with more and most. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The adverb descends from Old English rūme, separately from the noun; its relationship to the adjective is inherited. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old English rūme had the stated meanings. bosworthtoller.com
    • Both the adjective and the adverb form their comparative and superlative with more and most. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    blue dyenounobsoleteuncountable

    A deep blue dye; an obsolete spelling of roum.

    Note

    A spelling of roum, an obsolete word for a deep blue dye. It is unrelated to the room of space and buildings and comes from a separate line altogether. Like the dye's name, it is uncountable. Because the word is obsolete, this meaning appears only in older writing about cloth and dyeing; in a modern text, room never means the dye. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Room is an alternative spelling of roum meaning a deep blue dye. en.wiktionary.org
    • Roum is an obsolete name for a deep blue dye. en.wiktionary.org
    • The dye name has a different origin from the Germanic word for space. en.wiktionary.org
    • Room in the dye sense is uncountable, like roum. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    noun

    A wider part of a cave, larger than the passages that connect to it.
15. 15
    adverb

    In sailing, away from the wind; on a course steered off the wind's direction.
16. 16
    noun

    The gap left between adjacent timbers in a ship's frame.
17. 17
    noun

    A working area within a coal mine where coal is cut and extracted.