▪ I. antechamber, n.
(ˈæntiːtʃeɪmbə(r))
In 7–8 anti-chamber.
[a. Fr. antichambre, f. anti for ante before + chambre room, bedroom, after It. anti-camera. ‘It is generally written, improperly, antichamber.’ Johnson 1755–83.]
1. A chamber or room leading to the chief apartment; an ante-room, in which visitors wait; orig. the room admitting into the (royal) bed-chamber.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Antichambre, any outward chamber which is next or near the bed-chamber. a 1667 Cowley Liberty Wks. II. 679 He's besieg'd by two or three hundred suitors; and the Hall and Antichambers (all the outworks) possess'd by the Enemy. 1709 Lond. Gaz. mmmmdlviii/2 Her Majesty met them half-way of her Anti-chamber. 1789 Smyth tr. Aldrich's Archit. (1818) 138 Beyond these ante-chambers were larger rooms or halls. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 39 He stayed long in the antechamber, and sent in his name by several servants. |
2. fig.
| 1825 Bro. Jonathan II. 347 The ante-chamber of death. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life iii. ii. 81 Grammars and dictionaries are antechambers. |
3. transf. Any space forming the entrance to another.
| 1845 Todd & Bowman Phys. Anat. I. 434 The mouth, the ante-chamber to the digestive canal. 1862 Darwin Orchids i. 21 The ante-chamber to the nectary..is here small. |
▪ II. ˈantechamber, v. intr. and trans.
To wait or wait for in or as in an antechamber: cf. antechambering vbl. n.
| 1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 2 Oct. 1/3 All intriguing Paris was antechambering him. 1900 W. A. Ellis Wagner I. ii. ix. 291 My poor dog..was antechambering in the street in wait for his more fortunate master, allowed to antechamber among men. |