ladies' room
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.57 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A room belonging to or intended for some or all women, particularly
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "...a hanging stair of fifty-one steps... leads to the main hall, ladies' room, and balconies."
- "...Passenger House, containing ticket office, baggage room, ladies' room, gentlemen's room, water closet, say 50 feet by 20 feet..."
- "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..."
- "He had no lady with him, and his excuse for being in the ladies' room was, the gentlemen's room was too filthy. The little room into which he had gone was the ladies' water-closet... There were signs plainly printed on the doors, showing which rooms were for gentlemen and which for ladies and over the entrance to the little room, from which appellee was ejected, is printed the words: "Ladies' Private Room.""
- "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."
Etymology
Originally in reference to any chamber or suite reserved for the use of women, whether public or private. Popularized by its use as a clipped form of ladies' waiting room in reference to gender-separated facilities at train stations, etc. Its use in reference to lavatories replaced other euphemisms including cloak room, lavatory room, toilet room, private room, etc.