Meaning of Carrel | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Alternative spelling of carol (“a small closet or enclosure built against the inner side of a window of a monastery's cloister, to sit in for study”).
   alt-of, alternative, obsolete
2. A type of fabric used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
   obsolete
3. Synonym of quarrel (“a square-headed arrow”).
   obsolete
4. A surname.
5. A partitioned space for reading or studying, often in a library.
   broadly

Equivalents

Examples

“And in every wyndowe iij Pewes or Carrells, where every one of the old Monks had his carrell, severall by himselfe, that, when they had dyned, they dyd resorte to that place of Cloister and there studyed upon there books, every one in his carrell, all the after nonne, unto evensong tyme. […] All there pewes or carrells was all fynely wainscotted and verie close, all but the forepart which had carved wourke that gave light in at ther carrell doures of wainscott. And in every carrell was a deske to lye there bookes on.”

“Carol, or Carrel. A little pew, or closet, in a cloister, to sit and read in. They were common in greater monasteries, as Duram, Gloucester, Kirkham in Yorkshire, &c.; and had their name from the carols, or sentences inscribed on the walls about them, which often were couplets in rhyme. [Carola, Low Latin.]”

“Near-synonym: cubicle (sometimes synonymous)”

“He was busy writing his report in a small library carrel.”

“He then returned to his carrell for his own research.”

“Ah, the library. I booked like a madman for the Master’s Comp. Nine months, up in a study carrel on deck eight.”

“I sneaked a look at what the German student in the next carrel was reading. It was [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel, too—but in English translation! Well, I thought to myself with relief, if even native speakers use the English translation as a guide to Hegel's thought …”

CEFR level