Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Boudoir
‖
Bou-doir′
,Noun.
[F., fr.
bouder
to pout, be sulky.] A small room, esp. if pleasant, or elegantly furnished, to which a lady may retire to be alone, or to receive intimate friends; a lady’s bedroom; a lady's (or sometimes a gentleman's) private room.
Cowper.
Definition 2024
boudoir
boudoir
English
Noun
boudoir (plural boudoirs)
- A woman's private sitting room, dressing room, or bedroom.
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “chapter XII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:
- I found her in her boudoir getting outside a dish of tea and a crumpet.
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Usage notes
Strictly refers only to a woman’s room, but sometimes used informally or humorously by men to refer to their inner sanctum, as in The Big Sleep (1939), by American writer Raymond Chandler, where Philip Marlowe (the hero, a man) says (p. 53):
- “Tut, tut,” I said. “Come into my boudoir.”
Coordinate terms
Translations
woman's private room — see bower