CONSERVATORY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does conservatory mean? 

• CONSERVATORY (noun)
  The noun CONSERVATORY has 3 senses:

1. the faculty and students of a school specializing in one of the fine arts

2. a schoolhouse with special facilities for fine arts

3. a greenhouse in which plants are arranged in a pleasing manner

  Familiarity information: CONSERVATORY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSERVATORY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The faculty and students of a school specializing in one of the fine arts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("conservatory" is a kind of...):

school (an educational institution)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conservatory"):

music school; school of music (a school for the study of music)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A schoolhouse with special facilities for fine arts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

conservatoire; conservatory

Hypernyms ("conservatory" is a kind of...):

school; schoolhouse (a building where young people receive education)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conservatory"):

art school (a school specializing in art)

music school (a school specializing in music)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A greenhouse in which plants are arranged in a pleasing manner

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

conservatory; hothouse; indoor garden

Hypernyms ("conservatory" is a kind of...):

glasshouse; greenhouse (a building with glass walls and roof; for the cultivation and exhibition of plants under controlled conditions)

 Context examples 

She was sitting just inside the conservatory, waiting for her partner to bring her an ice, when she heard a voice ask on the other side of the flowery wall...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In Frank's last letter she complained, he said, of being too weak to get into her conservatory without having both his arm and his uncle's!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The conservatory doors were standing open, and Rosa Dartle was walking, bareheaded, with a quick, impetuous step, up and down a gravel walk on one side of the lawn.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was just beginning to stifle with the fumes of conservatory flowers and sprinkled essences, when I bethought myself to open the window and step out on to the balcony.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The thick, warm air of the conservatory and the rich, choking fragrance of exotic plants took us by the throat.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When they rose she proposed to go, but Laurie said he had something more to show her, and took her away to the conservatory, which had been lighted for her benefit.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

John no one thwarted, much less punished; though he twisted the necks of the pigeons, killed the little pea-chicks, set the dogs at the sheep, stripped the hothouse vines of their fruit, and broke the buds off the choicest plants in the conservatory: he called his mother old girl, too; sometimes reviled her for her dark skin, similar to his own; bluntly disregarded her wishes; not unfrequently tore and spoiled her silk attire; and he was still her own darling.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mrs. March wanted to talk of her father with the old man who had not forgotten him, Meg longed to walk in the conservatory, Beth sighed for the grand piano, and Amy was eager to see the fine pictures and statues.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The drawing- room, as I have before observed, was raised two steps above the dining- room, and on the top of the upper step, placed a yard or two back within the room, appeared a large marble basin—which I recognised as an ornament of the conservatory—where it usually stood, surrounded by exotics, and tenanted by gold fish—and whence it must have been transported with some trouble, on account of its size and weight.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Meg could walk in the conservatory whenever she liked and revel in bouquets, Jo browsed over the new library voraciously, and convulsed the old gentleman with her criticisms, Amy copied pictures and enjoyed beauty to her heart's content, and Laurie played 'lord of the manor' in the most delightful style.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)