ladies' room
76
1.0
- noun
- /ˈleɪdiz ruːm/
:
baño de mujeres
- Could you tell me where the ladies' room is?
- go to the ladies' room
- use the ladies' room
- looking for the ladies' room
Examples
-
Melanie comes out of the ladies' room, her lipstick generously replenished, her hair raised to new heights.
Fiction book (1997) -
I have to run to the ladies' room.
-
I took it off in the ladies' room to wash my hands.
Fiction book (1992) -
"I'll just be a minute," I said, and went back to the ladies' room.
Fiction book (1993) -
I'm gonna go to the ladies' room.
-
I'm just gonna stop off at the ladies' room first.
-
I had just walked in and was headed for the ladies' room when this kid started talking to me.
-
I left the waitress a big tip and visited the ladies' room on the way out.
Fiction book (1990) -
And anyway, as the day progresses, she needs to visit the ladies' room more often.
Fiction book (1995) -
I need to find the ladies' room before the event starts.
Synonyms
18
2.8
A small bathroom for women in public places or for guests at home
Surface Forms
Morphology
ladies' + room
The phrase literally combines the possessive 'ladies'' (women) with 'room' (an indoor space), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a room for women; in public contexts this conventional collocation is understood to mean the women's restroom. The compositional possessive + noun pattern is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, making the meaning directly derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Ladies' room may come from a polite, older way to say a 'toilet' for 'women'. People pictured a small room set aside for ladies' use to rest or fix their clothes, so today it means a public restroom for 'women'.