smoking compartment
- noun
- Archaic
:
compartimento de fumadores
- The smoking compartment was often located at the end of the train to minimize smoke exposure to other passengers.
Examples
-
The train has a designated smoking compartment.
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He mistakenly reserved seats in a smoking compartment despite being a non-smoker.
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In the past, travelers could choose a smoking compartment if they wanted to smoke during their journey.
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I prefer to sit in the smoking compartment when traveling.
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Passengers can enjoy a cigarette while waiting in the smoking compartment of the train.
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The train was equipped with a smoking compartment for those who wanted to relax with a smoke.
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Before boarding, he checked to see if his ticket allowed access to the smoking compartment.
Synonyms
7
7.0
A train car where people may use tobacco
A train car where people are allowed to smoke
A train car where people may light cigarettes
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a section for passengers who wish to smoke' is transparently derived from 'smoking' (the act/habit of inhaling smoke) + 'compartment' (a designated area). This straightforward noun–noun composition follows common English compounding patterns and is cross-linguistically regular, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Smoking compartment comes from old trains that set aside a small compartment for smoking. People could smoke there without filling the whole train with smoke, so the name came to mean 'a section or car on a train for people who want to smoke'.