closets

Noun

closet (plural closets)

1. A small room within a house used to store clothing, food, or other household supplies.
   • A Closet full of shelves... it... should therefore be called a Cupboard rather than a Closet.1799 May 17, Jane Austen, letter
2. (obsolete) Any private space, (particularly) bowers in the open air.
   • A slepe hym toke / In hys closet.c. 1370, Robert Cicyle, l. 57 f
3. (archaic) Any private or inner room, (particularly)
   • VVhen come to the place vvhere vve all vvere to dine, / (A chair-lumber'd Cloſet, juſt tvvelve feet by nine) / My friend bid me vvelcome, but ſtruck me quite dumb / VVith tidings that Johnson and Burke coud not come: […]1765, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to Lord Clare, Dublin: […] W. Whitestone, […], published 1776, →OCLC, page 9
4. (archaic, obsolete) A private room used by women to groom and dress themselves.
   • Closet for a lady to make her redy in, chamberette.1530, John Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement, page 206
5. (archaic) A private room used for prayer or other devotions.
   • When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 6:6
6. (archaic, figuratively) A place of (usually, fanciful) contemplation and theorizing.
   • [A]broad and at home, at their Tables or in their Closets […][1594], Richard Hooker, chapter 24, in J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   Synonyms:

   armchair

See all 23 meanings of closet