Meaning & use
drawer
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Meanings
nouncountable
A box-shaped container that slides in and out of a desk, cabinet or chest.
Grammar: Pronounced like draw in British English; in American English it has a r sound. Use in the drawer, not on.
Patterns
- in the drawer
- open a drawer
The scissors are in the top drawer.
She opened the kitchen drawer to find a spoon.
He pushed the drawer shut with his knee.
nouncountablerare
A person who draws pictures or plans.
Grammar: Pronounced with the same sound as draw plus -er, as in a good drawer.
Patterns
- a good drawer
My brother is a fast drawer and made a sketch in minutes.
The drawer of this map was a surveyor.
She is a talented drawer of cartoons.
nouncountablebusiness
The person who writes a check and orders a bank to pay.
Grammar: A banking word; the person receiving the payment is the payee.
Patterns
- the drawer of a check
The bank contacted the drawer when the check bounced.
The drawer must sign the check.
Only the drawer can stop payment on it.
nounpluralold-fashioned
Old-fashioned loose underpants; the plural is drawers.
Grammar: Almost always plural: a pair of drawers.
Patterns
- a pair of drawers
He packed three pairs of drawers for the trip.
In the old film, the hero wore long drawers.
The museum shows nineteenth-century drawers.
Word forms
| plural | drawers |
|---|
Common combinations
- top drawer
- The keys are in the top drawer.
- open a drawer
- She opened a drawer and found a letter.
- chest of drawers
- They carried a chest of drawers upstairs.
- desk drawer
- He kept the file in his desk drawer.
- kitchen drawer
- The kitchen drawer was full of old batteries.
- drawer of a check
- The drawer of the check must have enough funds.
Synonyms and how they differ
- compartment
- Compartment is a general word for any separate section of a space, while a drawer must slide out.
- tray
- Tray usually has no front and is carried or placed in a drawer, unlike a drawer, which is built into furniture.
- cabinet
- A cabinet is a whole piece of furniture, whereas a drawer is one part inside it.
- sketcher
- Sketcher is a less common word that suggests making quick drawings, a narrower idea than the person sense of drawer.
Word family
Commonly confused: drawer or draw? drawer or drawing?
drawer vs draw
Draw is the verb; drawer names the sliding box or the person who draws, and has an extra syllable's worth of sound in American English.
drawer vs drawing
A drawing is a picture, not a container.
Practice
I looked everywhere for my passport and finally found it in the bottom ___ of the desk.
Choose one answer.
A drawer is the sliding compartment. Draw is a verb, drawing is a picture, and drawn is a participle, so none can name a place.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “drawer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.