white room
2
6.1
- noun
- Specialized
:
sala blanca
- She led me to a small, white room where a man who introduced himself as an FBI agent was waiting for me.
- a small white room
- a clean white room
- a bright white room
Examples
-
To apply the emblems to the spacecraft, Bibby became the first and only woman to ascend the Mercury launch gantry and go inside the "white room" that surrounded the vehicle.
Blog text (9) -
The demo took place in a sterile white room with a chair, the Prototype-SR, and a real female guide.
Blog text (21) -
I'm in a white room.
-
When they met up again in the large, white room, they suddenly became very elated.
Fiction book (2001) -
It's a white room, overwhelmingly white, from the walls and the curtains to the institutional furniture and the bedspread.
Fiction book (2001) -
"I was in a white room—white wicker furniture, white walls, white rug—in a corner on the second floor.
Fiction book (1990) -
Sam is ushered into a small, sterile, white room by a female nurse.
-
Jason entered the dazzling white room and heard the door close behind him.
-
Only her vivid blue eyes stand out, darting nervously around the stark white room.
Synonyms
5
6.4
A room where people keep the air and surfaces very clean for making microchips and other sensitive equipment
3
3.9
A completely clean place with no bacteria or germs, used in surgery and labs
How Clean
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'white' (a color) and 'room' (an indoor space) will most likely interpret this as a room that is white in color, not as a specialist, dust‑free laboratory environment. The technical meaning of a controlled, sterile 'clean room' is jargonistic and not transparently derived from the literal constituents, so the expression is unpredictable for learners without prior exposure.
Etymology
White room comes from labs where the walls and floors were kept white and workers wore white suits so any dust or dirt would show up. So, white room now means 'a room kept extremely clean and free from dust or bacteria' used for careful lab work or to build very sensitive equipment.