Waiting room

For other uses, see Waiting Room (disambiguation).

Waiting room for passengers at Udon Thani International Airport, Thailand

A waiting room is a building, or more commonly a part of a building where people sit or stand until the event they are waiting for occurs.

There are generally two types of waiting room. One is where individuals leave one at a time, for instance at a doctor's office or a hospital, or outside a school headmaster's office. The other is where people leave en masse such as those at train stations, bus stations, and airports. These two examples also highlight the difference between waiting rooms where one is asked to wait (private waiting room) and waiting rooms one can just enter at will (public waiting rooms).

Most waiting rooms contain seats for people so they do not have to stand. Some have adjacent toilets. It is not uncommon to find vending machines in public waiting rooms or books and magazines in private waiting rooms. In some countries there are special waiting rooms especially for those who have paid for them, for example at airports and railway stations. These will generally be less crowded and will have superior seating and more facilities.

The films Brief Encounter and The Terminal use waiting rooms as sets for a large part of their duration. They are used elsewhere in the arts to symbolise waiting in the general sense, to symbolise transition in life and for scenes of a romantic or sad nature.

See also

• Airport lounge

This article related to a type of room in a building is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Rooms Room stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат? Bus depot Shading Look at other dictionaries: waiting room — waiting rooms also waiting room N COUNT A waiting room is a room in a place such as a railway station or a clinic, where people can sit down while they wait …   English dictionary waiting room — n a room for people to wait in, for example before they see a doctor, until their train arrives etc …   Dictionary of contemporary English waiting room — n. a room in which people wait, as in a railroad station or a dentist s office …   English World dictionary waiting room — noun a room (as in a hotel or airport) with seating where people can wait • Syn: ↑lounge, ↑waiting area • Hypernyms: ↑room • Hyponyms: ↑cloakroom, ↑departure lounge * * * noun, pl ⋯ rooms …   Useful english dictionary Waiting Room (EP) — Infobox Album | Name = Blindlight EP Type = EP Artist = Blindlight Released = October, 2007 Recorded = BigTone Recordings Manchester, Lancashire, UK Genre = Rock Length = [14.30] Label = [None Producer = TimG Reviews = | Last album = Blindlight… …   Wikipedia waiting room — UK [ˈweɪtɪŋ ˌruːm] / US [ˈweɪtɪŋ ˌrum] noun [countable] Word forms waiting room : singular waiting room plural waiting rooms a room where people wait for something, for example a train or an opportunity to see a doctor …   English dictionary waiting-room — see waiting room …   English dictionary Waiting Room to the Beyond — Directed by Alfred Vohrer Produced by Horst Wendlandt …   Wikipedia waiting room — room for people to wait before seeing the person they have a meeting with …   English contemporary dictionary Waiting Room (disambiguation) — The Waiting Room may refer to:*Waiting Room (band), an Australian rock band. * The Waiting Room (album), a 2002 album by Poor Old Lu. * The Waiting Room , a song from Genesis 1974 album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway . * Waiting Room , a song… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”