ladies' room

Noun

ladies' room (plural ladies' rooms)

1. A room belonging to or intended for some or all women, particularly
   • The assailants soon became masters of the whole house, except the room where the general was, and which was strongly barred, and they kept up a constant firing of musketry into the windows and doors, except into those of the ladies' room.1825, “Peleg Wadsworth”, in American Military Biography, page 198
   • ...a hanging stair of fifty-one steps... leads to the main hall, ladies' room, and balconies.1825, James Haig, A Topographical and Historical account of the Town of Kelso, and of the Town and Castle of Roxburgh, page 137
2. (historical) A waiting room in a railway station or other public building intended exclusively for women and usually including a separate women's lavatory.
   • ...Passenger House, containing ticket office, baggage room, ladies' room, gentlemen's room, water closet, say 50 feet by 20 feet...1856, Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, volume 14, number 1, page 71
   • Arconum—I found two chairs wanting in the gentlemen's room, and the bath room attached applied to other purposes; the ladies' room was clean, and properly furnished, with the exception of two basins which were removed; the privies and urinaries clean...1864 January 26, J.G. Lindsay, letter to P.P.L. O'Connel, §8

   Synonyms:

   bathroom, women's room

3. (euphemistic) A public restroom intended for use by females.
   • The women's toilet (as distinguished from the ladies' room in a speakeasy, the johnny at school, the little girls' room at a party in an apartment, and the wash-my-hands on a train) was clean enough.1935, John O'Hara, BUtterfield 8, Ch. ix, p. 279