cellar

[sel-er]

noun

1. a room, or set of rooms, for the storage of food, fuel, etc., wholly or partly underground and usually beneath a building.

2. an underground room or story.

3. wine cellar.

4. Sports.,  the lowest position in a group ranked in order of games won.

   The team was in the cellar for most of the season.

verb (used with object)

1. to place or store in a cellar.

cellar

/ ˈsɛlə /

noun

1. an underground room, rooms, or storey of a building, usually used for storage Compare basement

2. a place where wine is stored

3. a stock of bottled wines

verb

1. (tr) to store in a cellar

Other Word Forms

• cellarless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cellar¹

1175–1225; Middle English celer < Anglo-French < Latin cellārium storeroom, equivalent to cell ( a ) cell + -ārium -ary; later respelling to reflect Latin form; -er ², -ar ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of cellar¹

C13: from Anglo-French, from Latin cellārium food store, from cella _cella

Example Sentences

Court documents related to the Great Train Robbery have been found inside a locked safe in a cellar.

From BBC

Tourism is a major part of the business for many Welsh wine producers who offer tours and tasting events resulting in a large proportion of sales at the "cellar door".

From BBC

In 1965, Stamp starred in an adaptation of the John Fowles novel The Collector, as the repressed Frederick Clegg who kidnaps a girl and imprisons her in his cellar.

From BBC

People are thought to have lived in the upper floors of homes above the ash below, with the lower floors converted into cellars.

From BBC

What seemed scarier, perhaps, was that the team doing the damage spent most of the season fighting to crawl out of the league’s cellar.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• apartment 
• basement 
• vault