gentlemen's

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See also: Gentlemen's

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Clipping of gentlemen's room, originally a waiting room for men but by the first attestation of gentlemen's in general use as a euphemism for a men's lavatory.

Noun

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gentlemen's (plural gentlemen's)

  1. possessive case of gentlemen: belonging to some or all gentlemen.
  2. (informal euphemistic) Synonym of men's room: a lavatory intended for use by men.
    • 1898, The Hotel/Motor Hotel Monthly, volume 6, page 27:
      A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet room is not found in the Southern Hotel. It either "men's" or "gentlemen's".
    • 1933, James Ian Arbuthnot Frazer as "Shamus Frazer", Acorned Hog, page 78:
      Over on that platform's the general waiting-room,... and over there's the Gentlemen's, and, any'ow, everythink's written up.
    • 1934, Evelyn Waugh, chapter III, in Handful of Dust, page 117:
      "I tell you what I must do, is to telephone. Where is it?"
      "D'you mean really the telephone or the gentlemen's?"

Synonyms

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Coordinate terms

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References

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  • "gentleman, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary (1898), Oxford: Oxford University Press.