a room for business or social conversation, for the reception of guests, etc.-the apartment in a monastery or nunnery where the inmates are permitted to meet and converse with each other, or with visitors and friends from without.-in large private houses, a sitting room for the family and for familiar guests, -- a room for less formal uses than the drawing-room. esp., in modern times, the dining room of a house having few apartments, as a london house, where the dining parlor is usually on the ground floor.-commonly, in the united states, a drawing-room, or the room where visitors are received and entertained.