DRAWER


Meaning of DRAWER in English

drawer S3 /drɔː $ drɒːr/ BrE AmE noun [countable]

[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Origin: ⇨ ↑ draw 1 ]

1 . part of a piece of furniture, such as a desk, that you pull out and push in and use to keep things in:

She took a file from her desk drawer.

The scissors are in the kitchen drawer (=drawer in a piece of kitchen furniture) .

top/bottom/right-hand/left-hand drawer

He opened the top drawer of his desk, and took out a brown envelope.

sock/cutlery drawer (=one for keeping socks, or knives, forks etc in) ⇨ ↑ bottom drawer , ↑ chest of drawers , ↑ top-drawer

2 . drawers [plural] old-fashioned underwear that women and girls wear between their waist and the tops of their legs SYN knickers

• • •

COLLOCATIONS

■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + drawer

▪ the top/bottom/middle drawer

He opened the bottom drawer and got out a T-shirt.

▪ a desk/table/dresser etc drawer

The passports are in my desk drawer.

▪ a kitchen drawer (=in a piece of kitchen furniture)

There's some string in that kitchen drawer.

▪ a sock/underwear/cutlery etc drawer (=containing socks, underwear etc)

He hid the gun in his sock drawer.

▪ the right-hand/left-hand drawer

Have you looked in the left-hand drawer?

■ verbs

▪ open a drawer

Jonathan opened the drawer and took out a fork.

▪ pull open/pull out a drawer (=open it)

He pulled open drawers until he found the papers.

▪ close/shut a drawer

She shut the drawer and locked it with a small key.

▪ go through/look through/search through drawers (=try to find something by looking in drawers)

I've been through all my drawers and I can't find it.

▪ rummage/rifle through drawers (=search in them by moving things around in an untidy way)

Someone had been in my bedroom and rummaged through my drawers.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.