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.