state-room
1. A state apartment; a room in a palace, great house, hotel, etc., splendidly decorated and furnished, and used only on ceremonial occasions.
| 1703 Lond. Gaz. No. 3943/4 Several Tables were plentifully covered in the State-Room, and in the Guildhall. 1742 Young Love of Fame i. 170 When lo! my Lord to some small corner runs, And leaves state-rooms to strangers and to duns. 1853 Felton Fam. Lett. vi. (1865) 40, I have seen but few places yet; but have passed through the state-rooms of the Tuileries. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. x. 308 A grand military dinner in the state room of the Sussex, at Tunbridge Wells. 1912 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 501/2 Prince Arthur..stayed twice in the College, probably in the Founder's state-rooms. |
| fig. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. II. 79 note, The mechanical system of philosophy..leaves the idea of omnipresence a mere abstract notion in the state room of our reason. |
2. A captain's or superior officer's room on board ship. (
Cf. state-cabin,
state n. 41.)
| 1660 Pepys Diary 24 Apr., Very pleasant we were on board the London which hath a state-room much bigger than the Nazeby, but not so rich. 1694 Lond. Gaz. No. 2982/3 The Yacht having lost in this Rencounter but 3 men, who were killed by one great Shot in the State-Room. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxxv, A cabbin was made for him contiguous to the state-room, where Whiffle slept. 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge xvii, The cabin had two state-rooms, as they are called in merchantmen, opening off it. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xiv, In the captain's state-room they had found fourteen thousand dollars in bags. |
3. U.S. a. A sleeping apartment with one or two berths on a passenger steamer.
| 1774 J. Schaw Jrnl. Lady of Quality (1921) i. 22 Our Bed chamber which is dignified with the title of State Room, is about five foot wide and six long. 1832 F. Trollope Dom. Manners Amer. (ed. 2) I. xvii. 259 They occupied a state-room which Captain Hall had secured for his party. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 152 On board steam⁓boats which have not separate state-rooms, there are no means of preserving sufficient cleanliness and health. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 1/1 This state-room had been specially engaged for ‘Charles Dickens, Esquire, and Lady’. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xv, There she is, sitting now in her state room, surrounded by..little and big carpet⁓bags, boxes, baskets. 1873 Medley Autumn Tour U.S. & Canada v. 77 On the middle deck [of the steamer] is a splendid saloon,..with most comfortable sleeping cabins on both sides, which, by the way, are always called ‘State-rooms’. |
b. A private compartment in a railway train.
| 1853 Southern Standard (Charleston, S. Carolina) 31 Aug. 2/5 Messrs. Eaton & Gilbert..have built a beautiful car for the Hudson River Railroad which is divided into state rooms of eight feet square. 1867 W. H. Dixon New Amer. II. 291 On the Pennsylvania central line, a lady entered into my state-room. 1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms 359 In the new Palace Cars they pay more, if they engage a state-room. 1884 E. Yates Recoll. II. 264, I used to engage a ‘state-room’, i.e. a private compartment, on the train. |
4. Boating. (See
quot.)
| 1857 P. Colquhoun Comp. Oarsman's Guide 29 Seats termed ‘thwarts’, forward, midship, after, and backward thwart; the state-room being the space between the back⁓board or after, and the midship thwart. |