conservatory
nounEtymology From Medieval Latin cōnservātōrium directly and via French conservatoire and Italian conservatorio, from cōnservātus (“conserved, preserved”) + -ōrium (“-ory: forming related nouns”).
10 senses
- 1A medicine, especially a magical preservative.
- 2A school or clinic for orphans.
- 3A music school.
- 4A storehouse, a repository.
- 5An icehouse, a warehouse for ice.
- 6A cistern, an artificially collected body of water.
- 7A reservoir, an artificially maintained body of water.
- 8A greenhouse, a glass-walled building for cultivating…
- 9A solarium, a glass-walled and glass-roofed room in a house.
- 10A drama school.
1
Obsolete A medicine, especially a magical preservative.
- The auncient Catholyke fathers... were not afrayde to call this Supper... the foode of immortalitie... and the conseruatory to euerlastyng lyfe.1563, John Jewel, The Seconde Tome of Homelyes..., sig. IIII.i.v
- ...a tree appointed to be the cure of diseases and a conservatory of life...1655, Jeremy Taylor, Vnum Necessarium, p. 371
2
A school or clinic for orphans.
Chiefly historical Italian contexts
3
US A music school.
4
Archaic A storehouse, a repository.
5
Obsolete An icehouse, a warehouse for ice.
6
Obsolete A cistern, an artificially collected body of water.
7
Obsolete A reservoir, an artificially maintained body of water.
8
Uncommon A greenhouse, a glass-walled building for cultivating delicate plants.
- Joyce Barnaby: It's a lovely cottage in Badger's Drift. It's got two bedrooms, two living rooms and a conservatory. DCI Tom Barnaby: Conservatory? Sounds like something out of Cluedo.1999 September 12, Anthony Horowitz & al., "Dead Man's Eleven", Midsomer Murders
10
A drama school.
- Synonyms
- music school, academy of drama, drama school, theater school, theatre school
- Derived terms
- conservatorylike