still room
- noun
- Archaic
:
despensa
- The still room was filled with jars of homemade preserves and bottles of fine wine.
Examples
-
"We will not be riding any horses today," his voice sounded loud in the still room.
Fiction book (1991) -
Ted looks around the still room.
Fiction book (1995) -
In the quiet still room, the aroma of freshly brewed tea lingered in the air.
-
She prepared the afternoon tea in the cozy still room, surrounded by shelves of herbs and spices.
Synonyms
76
1.0
A small room or cupboard in a house where people keep food and dishes
38
1.8
A room where people keep extra things not used every day
29
1.6
A room where you keep things you do not use often
1
7.7
A small room or cupboard for keeping food
A room in a large old house where staff make and store drinks, jams, and tea
How Stocked
Surface Forms
Morphology
Given the provided constituent meanings, a B1 learner who knows 'still' as an adjective meaning 'non-effervescent' plus 'room' would not infer a specialised pantry for distilling and storing beverages. The historical/technical sense of 'still' (a distilling apparatus) that underlies 'still room' is not transparent to typical learners, so the compound’s meaning is idiomatic and unpredictable from the listed parts.
Etymology
The noun still room comes from old houses that kept a still, a small tool used to make alcohol, oils and medicines, in a room near the kitchen. That still room was also where people prepared teas and stored jams and bottled drinks, so today still room means a pantry or storeroom for drinks and preserves.