The phrase common room is used especially in British and Canadian English to describe a type of shared lounge, most often found in dormitories, at (for example) universities, colleges, military bases, hospitals, rest homes, hostels, and even minimum-security prisons. It is generally connected to several private rooms, and may incorporate a bathroom. However, they may also be found in day schools and sixth forms.
Regular features include couches, televisions, coffee tables, and other generic lounge furniture for socializing.
Depending on its location and purpose of use, a common room may be known by another name. For instance, in mental hospitals, where access is usually restricted to the daytime hours, this type of room is often called a "day room".
Famous quotes containing the words common and/or room:
“If you meet a sectary, or a hostile partisan, never recognize the dividing lines; but meet on what common ground remains,—if only that the sun shines, and the rain rains for both; the area will widen very fast, and ere you know it the boundary mountains, on which the eye had fastened, have melted into air.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For I pray that my typewriter, ever faithful, will not break even though I threw it across the hospital room six years ago.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)