gentlemen's

See also: Gentlemen's

English

Alternative forms

• Gentlemen's

Etymology

Clipping of gentlemen's room, originally a waiting room for men but by the first attestation of gentlemen's in general use as a euphemism for a men's lavatory.

Noun

gentlemen's (plural gentlemen's)

1. possessive case of gentlemen: belonging to some or all gentlemen.
2. (informal euphemistic) Synonym of men's room: a lavatory intended for use by men.
   • 1898, The Hotel/Motor Hotel Monthly, volume 6, page 27:

     A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet room is not found in the Southern Hotel. It either "men's" or "gentlemen's".

   • 1933, James Ian Arbuthnot Frazer as "Shamus Frazer", Acorned Hog, page 78:

     Over on that platform's the general waiting-room,... and over there's the Gentlemen's, and, any'ow, everythink's written up.

   • 1934, Evelyn Waugh, chapter III, in Handful of Dust, page 117:

     "I tell you what I must do, is to telephone. Where is it?"
     "D'you mean really the telephone or the gentlemen's?"

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:bathroom

Coordinate terms

• ladies'

References

• "gentleman, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary (1898), Oxford: Oxford University Press.