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above stairs. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
above stairs, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
above stairs in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
above stairs you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
Prepositional phrase
above stairs
- (archaic) Upstairs; in or on an upper floor.
1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing Matter Rather Natural than Pleasing”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A Millar, , →OCLC, page 183:The Phyſician now arrived, and began to enquire of the two Diſputants, how we all did above Stairs? 'In a miſerable Way,' anſwered Thwackum.
1877 February, Henry James, Jr., chapter XIX, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R Osgood and Company, , published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 334:She took him to a room above-stairs, and introduced him to a bed on which a magnified bolster, in yellow calico, figured as a counterpane.
1901, M. P. Shiel, The Lord of the Sea:He was found above-stairs in an empty room, searching the floor for something.
- (British, historical) In or pertaining to the part of a large house, typically the above-ground rooms, in which the owning family lives, contrasted with below stairs where the servants are accommodated.
Alternative forms
Translations
Noun
above stairs (plural above-stairs)
- (archaic) The part of a building above the ground level.
Further reading
- Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 , →ISBN), page 5