chiffonier
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French chiffonnier.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌʃɪf.əˈnɪə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌʃɪf.əˈnɪɹ/
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Noun[edit]
chiffonier (plural chiffoniers)
- A tall, elegant chest of drawers, often with a mirror attached.
- 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 219–220:
- "There is nothing of the kind even within view," cried Helen, warmly, "nor any one object that could offend the most fastidious eye, as Mrs. Palmer observed; a duchess might delight in it; every thing is so clean without, and so good within: such beautiful carpets and rugs to match! such handsome chiffoniers, and elegant books!...
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
- 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 71:
- From the half-open drawers of this chiffonnier hung laces, ribands, stockings, ladies' underclothing and an abdominal brace, which gave the impression that the feminine finery had suffered venery.
- One who gathers rags and odds and ends; a ragpicker.
- A receptacle for rags or shreds.