garret

From Middle English garett, garite, from Old French garite, guerite (“watchtower”), from garir, guarir (“to defend, protect”) (compare English garrison), ultimately of Germanic origin (see English garage). Doublet of guerite.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡæɹɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡæɹɪt/, /ˈɡɛɹɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

garret (plural garrets)

1. An attic or semi-finished room just beneath the roof of a house.
   • 1660 January 11 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “January 1st, 1659–1660 (Lord’s Day)”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to X), London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893–1899, →OCLC:

     This morning (we living lately in the garret,) I rose, put on my suit with great skirts, having not lately worn any other clothes but them.

   • 1866, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (translated by Constance Garnett), Crime and Punishment‎, Part I, Chapter I:

     On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.

   • 1895, George MacDonald, Lilith:

     I was in the main garret, with huge beams and rafters over my head, great spaces around me, a door here and there in sight, and long vistas whose gloom was thinned by a few lurking cobwebbed windows and small dusky skylights.

   • 2011 February 22, Daniel J. Wakin, “Free Trove of Music Scores on Web Hits Sensitive Copyright Note”, in New York Times‎:

     While a boon to garret-living, financially struggling young musicians, the library has caught the attention of music publishers.

• garret on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Trager, garter, grater

garret

1. Alternative form of garite