tornado cellar
- noun
- /tɔrˈneɪdoʊ ˈsɛlər/
- US
:
refugio antitornado
- After the sirens sounded, they quickly gathered their supplies and made their way to the tornado cellar.
Examples
-
That same day, Leticia Graycloud refused to take cover in the tornado cellar.
Fiction book (1990) -
She pointed, and they ran back outside to the entrance of the tornado cellar and beat on the door.
Fiction book (1990) -
During the storm warning, the family hurried into the tornado cellar for safety.
-
When the tornado alert was issued, everyone knew to head to the tornado cellar to stay protected.
Synonyms
28
3.4
A strong place often underground where people stay to be safe from bombs
8
5.3
A room underground that protects people from radioactive dust after a nuclear blast
3
4.1
An underground place where people go to stay safe during very strong storms like tornadoes
2
4.4
A strong place, often underground, that protects people from bombs
1
7.2
An underground room where people stay safe during strong storms
How Safe
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an underground shelter for tornadoes' is directly and transparently built from 'tornado' (a severe rotating storm) and 'cellar' (an underground room), so a learner who knows both words can infer an underground space related to tornadoes. This noun+noun composition follows regular English compounding patterns and is cross-linguistically intuitive, making it readily comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Tornado cellar combines tornado and cellar: imagine a small room dug under a house where people hurry to hide when a tornado comes. That's why it means 'an underground shelter to keep people safe during a tornado or severe storm'.