boudoir
nounUK /ˈbuːdwɑː/ · US /buˈdwɑɹ/
Etymology Borrowed from French boudoir, from bouder (“to sulk”), of Germanic origin.
1
A woman's private sitting room, dressing room, or bedroom.
- The Duchesse's boudoir was fitted up in a style of luxury utterly different from anything before familiar to the Carraras.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 118:
- The church like a huge boudoir spread around her; the arches bent down to gather in the shade the confession of her love; the windows shone resplendent to illumine her face, and the censers would burn that she might appear like an angel amid the fumes of the sweet-smelling odours.1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter I, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part III, page 264:
2 more examples
- Dorcas, faithful to her “young gentlemen,” denied strenuously that it could have been John’s voice she heard, and resolutely declared, in the teeth of everything, that it was Mr. Inglethorp who had been in the boudoir with her mistress.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 154:
- I found her in her boudoir getting outside a dish of tea and a crumpet.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
- Derived terms
- boudoir bandicoot, boudoir biscuit, boudoir chair, boudoir lamp, boudoir piano, smell like a tart's boudoir
- Related terms
- boody, withdrawing room, drawing room