caravanserai

Noun

caravanserai (plural caravanserais)

1. (historical) A roadside inn, usually having a central courtyard where caravans (see sense 3) can rest, providing accommodation for travellers along trade routes in Asia and North Africa.
   • A dervise travelling through Tartary, being arrived at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by mistake, as thinking it to be a public inn, or caravansary. […] It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during this debate, and, smiling at the mistake of the dervise, asked...1712 February 10 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “WEDNESDAY, January 31, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 289; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition...
   • But not in sumptuous Caravansary / The adventurer idles there, / Nor satiates wonder with her pomp and wealth; […]1801, Robert Southey, “The Fifth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, page 269

   Synonyms:

   lodging place

2. (broadly) A place resembling a caravanserai (sense 1) as being a place for resting temporarily, or a meeting place (especially one that is busy, or where people of different cultures encounter each other).
   • Conſider, I beſeech you, vvhat proviſion and accommodation, the Author of our being has prepared for us, that vve might not go on our vvay ſorrovving—hovv many caravanſera's of reſt—vvhat povvers and faculties he has given us for taking it—vvhat apt objects he has placed in our vvay to entertain...1760, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], “Sermon II. The House of Feasting and the House of Mourning Described.”, in The Sermons of Mr. Yorick, volume I, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames]...
   • They stopped at the most memorable places, and at last arrived at Rome, where a princess vacated her palace for their accommodation and so many louis-d'or a-month. Rome, once the mistress, is now the caravanseray of the world.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 266
3. (broadly) Synonym of caravan (“a convoy of travellers, their cargo and vehicles, and pack animals”).
   • There they go, our brothers who have been educated at public schools and universities, mounting those steps, passing in and out of those doors,[…]. It is a solemn sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai crossing a desert.1938, Virginia Woolf, “Part Two”, in Three Guineas, London: The Hogarth Press, […], →OCLC, page 111

   Synonyms:

   caravan

4. (archaic, broadly) A hostelry, an inn; also (humorous), an (upscale) hotel.
   • By the bye it is as well to mention, for the benefit of the inexperienced, that there are no Inns in Ireland; all are hotels, from the lowest road cabin to the splendid caravanserai, with all its appurtenances of luxury and ease.1838, “a Pedestrian” [pseudonym], “Cork”, in A Guide to the Lakes of Killarney and the South of Ireland, London: J. Onwhyn, […], →OCLC, page 56
   • Six anxious inquiries of marble-fronted-hotel clerks about rates; and twice when she angrily made it plain she couldn't afford it, and quit the caravanserai where Andy and Mahala and Mrs Boyle were to loll in kitchenette-bedizened splendor and hunted up a smaller hotel that looked like a private...1940, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 27, in Bethel Merriday, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, →OCLC, page 281