| 释义 |
ˈpowder-room
[f. powder n.1 + room n.1]
a. A room on board ship in which the gunpowder is stored, the powder-magazine in a ship.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 13 It is..very dangerous lying ouer the Powder-roome. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xviii. IV. 239 Now and then a loud explosion announced that the flames had reached a powder room.
b. = powder closet s.v. powder n.1 5 b.
1908‘F. Danby’ Heart of Child xv. 250 He liked to see..his Staffordshire pottery en-niched in the quaint powder-room, opening out of the drawing-room. 1946J. W. Day Harvest Adventure xiv. 243 Look at the old drawings of Ockwells in Lysons' Magna Britannica [sic] and other works, and you will see that, a hundred years ago, the powder-room window was completely blocked up. 1966M. M. Pegler Dict. Interior Design (1967) 351 Powder room, originally a corner or small closet in the bedroom of an 18th-century house where one could go to have one's hair powdered.
c. A women's cloak-room or lavatory in a hotel or shop; gen. a lavatory. Also attrib.
1941B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? xi. 272 She had just run into Laurette in the powder room. 1945Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 640 During the days of Prohibition some learned speak-easy proprietor in New York hit upon the happy device of calling his retiring-room for female boozers a powder-room. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 13 June 323/2 But there is too much of the language of powder-room chatter (‘When Terry asked me to marry him, as I thought I hoped he would..’) and platitude for her tale to gain and hold sympathy. 1959D. du Maurier Breaking Point 219 The call-box was just opposite the ladies' powder room. 1977Time 5 Dec. 68/3 While the play is laced with affectionately bantering humor and a gamy ration of powder-room candor, the characters are stereotypical. |