front room

English

Alternative forms

• frontroom, front-room

Noun

front room (plural front rooms)

1. A room in the front of a house; especially, a living room in such position that is used for entertaining guests or for special occasions.

   Synonym: foreroom

   Antonyms: backroom, back room

   Coordinate terms: anteroom, antechamber; parlor, sitting room, drawing room; front porch

   • 1880, Frances Hodgson Burnett, chapter 7, in Louisiana‎^[1]:

     She did not knock at the door, which stood open, but, somewhat to Fermi's amazement, walked at once into the front room, which was plainly the room of state.

   • 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 3, in A Study in Scarlet‎^[2]:

     He found the door open, and in the front room, which is bare of furniture, discovered the body of a gentleman, well dressed, and having cards in his pocket bearing the name of ‘Enoch J. Drebber, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.‘

   • 1913, Theodore Roosevelt, chapter 1, in Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography‎^[3]:

     The front room, the parlor, seemed to us children to be a room of much splendor, but was open for general use only on Sunday evening or on rare occasions when there were parties.

   • 1942, Emily Carr, “Loyalty”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

     She had a whole floor of everlasting flowers spread to dry in her front room.

Related terms

• front office
• front of house
• front of the house

Translations

room reserved for special occasions — see also living room

• Scottish Gaelic: seòmar-aghaidh m, seòmar-beòil m, seòmar-toisich m