In British society, a drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from withdrawing room. In a large sixteenth, seventeenth or early eighteenth century English house, a withdrawing room was a room to which the owner of the house, his wife, or a distinguished guest who was occupying one of the main apartments in the house could "withdraw" for more privacy. It was often off the great chamber (or the great chamber's descendant the saloon) and usually led to a bedroom.

The term drawing room is not used as widely as it once was, and tends to be used in Britain only by those who also have other reception rooms in which to relax, hence the drawing room is the smartest room in the house usually used by the adults of the family when entertaining.

Drawing room comedy

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The drawing room, being a room in the house to entertain visitors, gave its name to drawing room comedy, a genre of theatrical productions and motion pictures. Drawing room comedy typically features witty remarks and verbal banter among wealthy, genteel, upper class characters. Drawing room comedy is also sometimes called the "comedy of manners." Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and several of the plays of Noel Coward are considered typical works of the genre.

Rooms | Theatrical genres