cellar Hear it!

cellar Definition

cel·lar (selər)

noun

  1. a room or group of rooms below the ground level and usually under a building, often used for storing fuel, provisions, or wines
  2. a stock of wines kept in such a cellar

Etymology: ME celler < OFr celier < L cellarium, pantry, storeroom < cella: see cell

transitive verb

to store in a cellar

cellar Idioms

the cellar

Informal the lowest position, as in the relative standing of competing teams

cellar Synonyms

cellar

n.

basement, half basement, underground room, vault; see basement 1.

cellar Usage Examples

Converse of subject

complement: The food is complemented by a wine cellar that offers a wide choice of carefully selected bottles at all price levels.

Converse of object

  • vault: The remains are now no more than a triangular building platform, with a sand stone arch leading into a vaulted cellar.
  • well-stock: You can complement your meal with a selection from our well-stocked cellar or perhaps choose a bottle from our extensive wine list.
  • excavate: Rayner and Sewell were a different matter; carefully and methodically, they completely excavated the cellars.

Adjective modifier

  • dank: The sinner senses darkness in his soul similar to that of a dark and dank cellar.
  • damp: For many decades it rests quietly in the damp cellars below sea level.
  • cooperative: Marketing: About one quarter of the region's wine is produced by seven cooperative cellars.
  • underground: The interior is quite impressive, with a glass catwalk leading over an underground wine cellar.
  • dark: Our society has locked its collective demons away in a dark cellar.
  • extensive: The extensive wine cellars offer over 2,500 bins with prices from £ 14 to £ 10,000 for a magnum of 1870 Chateau Lafite.

Modifies a noun

  • stair: Not ones to miss a freebie, ours was installed at the top of the cellar stairs where it can't do much harm.
  • dwelling: A weaver's cellar dwelling - What a home would have been like a hundred years ago.
  • door: They were at the cellar door, he thought.
  • bar: There is also a cellar bar, with live music most nights.

Noun used with modifier

  • wine: A doorway opens to a lobby with stone steps down to the wine cellar.
  • coal: The earliest public musical concerts were held in a coal cellar in Britton Street.
  • basement: Their 13-year-old son Tony, who was in the back basement cellar, survived.
  • salt: To wager round petition listed his tail that extends salt cellars from.
  • beer: The entrance to the beer cellar is from the restaurant area.
  • champagne: Here you visit the centuries-old champagne cellars of Pannier.