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Glite Dictionary
root cellar

root cellar

8 4.3
A cool underground room that keeps vegetables like potatoes and carrots fresh
  • noun
  • /ruːt ˈsɛlər/
translation icon : bodega
  • Go in the root cellar and get me some carrots and potatoes to put in the stew.
  • root cellar storage
  • vegetables in the root cellar
  • cool, dank root cellar

Maybe someone will still be alive in February, so I'm going to put some potatoes in the root cellar just in case.

Examples

  • Maybe someone will still be alive in February, so I'm going to put some potatoes in the root cellar just in case.

    Stanford

  • We use our root cellar to keep potatoes and carrots fresh during the winter.

  • I think this is the root cellar they were talking about.

    Delirium (2018)

  • - It's down in my root cellar.

    The Ladykillers (2004)

  • Finally, he thinks of the root cellar and the promise of a good dinner.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • At the far end of the room was a root cellar where food could be kept.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • We found a root cellar full of home-canned food.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • My grandmother's old place had a root cellar just like that, full of spiders and things.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Ah, but her yard, her root cellar, and her freezer were abundant with provisions.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Preserving Fresh Grown Food was a good introduction to freezing, canning, and root cellars.

    Blog text (12)

Synonyms

cellar
vsroot cellar
149 1.6

An underground room for storing food, wine, or other items

is used specifically to store vegetables like carrots and potatoes to keep them cool
undercroft
vsroot cellar
  • Archaic
1 8.4

A room under a building used to store food or drink

is intended mainly for keeping vegetables and other produce cool underground

How Cold

cold storage
1 3.7
refrigerator
315 1.0
root cellar
8 4.3
cellar
149 1.6
pantry
76 1.0

Surface Forms

root cellar singular
root cellars plural

Morphology

root + cellar

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'root' (root vegetables) + 'cellar' (an underground storage room); together they denote an underground storage for roots. This noun–noun compounding is transparent and common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The noun root cellar comes from farmers who dug a cool, underground room to store root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. Because cellar means an underground room, the phrase now means 'a cool underground place to keep vegetables and food fresh'.