Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A room or enclosed space used for storage, usually beneath the ground or under a building.
  • noun A basement.
  • noun An underground shelter, as from storms.
  • noun A wine cellar.
  • noun Slang The last place or lowest level, especially in competitive standings.
  • transitive verb To store in a cellar.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A room under a house or other building, either wholly or partly under ground, not adapted for habitation, but for the storage of provisions, wine, lumber, fuel, etc.
  • noun A receptacle or case for bottles.
  • Of or pertaining to a cell; cellular: as, cellar walls.
  • noun See celure.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A room or rooms under a building, and usually below the surface of the ground, where provisions and other stores are kept.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun salt cellar
  • noun An enclosed underground space, often under a building; used for storage or shelter.
  • noun A wine collection, especially when stored in a cellar.
  • noun slang Last place in a competition.
  • noun historical A small dish for holding salt.
  • verb transitive To store in a cellar.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an excavation where root vegetables are stored
  • noun the lowermost portion of a structure partly or wholly below ground level; often used for storage
  • noun storage space where wines are stored

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English celer, from Old French, from Late Latin cellārium, pantry, from Latin cella, storeroom; see kel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From 15th Century English saler, from Old French salière, from Latin salarius ("relating to salt"), from Latin sal ("salt")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman celer, Old French celier ( > modern cellier), from Latin cellārium.

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Examples

  • ££ lains they dig great cellars and grottos, and strike a hole about a foot square, ten or twelve feet into the hill, which all the summer long blows a fresh air into the cellar, so that the wine in those cellar* drinks almost as cold as if it were in ice.

    Omniana, or Horae otiosiores 1812

  • The New Zealand wineries are similar to the American wineries and welcome visitors to what they call the cellar door.

    A Year of Wine Tyler Colman 2008

  • “I will, my lord,” answered the executioner, “on condition that, if this must be in the way of dungeon execution, which I call cellar practice, my privilege to claim nobility shall be saved and reserved to me, and the execution shall be declared to be as effectual to my claim, as it might have been if the blow had been dealt in broad daylight, with my honorable blade of office.”

    Anne of Geierstein 2008

  • The New Zealand wineries are similar to the American wineries and welcome visitors to what they call the cellar door.

    A Year of Wine Tyler Colman 2008

  • Mr Haq bustled off to what he called his cellar through the fronds of polyethylene Spanish moss.

    Put On By Cunning Rendell, Ruth, 1930- 1981

  • The only foreign wine that Ghedina keeps in his cellar is a rough Piedmontese vintage called Vino Barbera, which costs about two francs the bottle.

    Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys 1873

  • The part I play in the movie, Shakey, is what they call a cellar rat and they were the guys that moved the barrels around and hosed stuff down so Shakey didn't know much about making wine.

    Latest News - MovieWeb.com 2009

  • For wine lovers, at Vigne Surrau, a 10-minute drive from Porto Cervo, the grape harvest will be under way, and the cellar is open for tours.

    The Subdued Side of Sardinia Cristina Slattery 2010

  • While keeping an organized and accurate list of your cellar is key, keep in mind that many small production wines will not offer a bar code.

    Scanners and wine don't make a good blend--yet | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009

  • Now his cellar is deep enough to have plenty of old vintage of white Burgundy and white Bordeaux to draw upon to hedge his exposure to premox, and I am sure that despite his Herculean efforts to ascertain provenance on the old wines he has purchased over the last decade, it is highly unlikely that he has not had to deal with more than his fair share of expensive fakes in his cellar.

    Natural wines, premox, chenin blanc, 07 Port and Rhone – John Gilman | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009

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