garret¹

[gar-it] /ˈgær ɪt/

noun

an attic, usually a small, wretched one.

Origin

1300-50; Middle English garite watchtower < Old French garite, guerite watchtower, derivative of garir, guarir to defend, protect; see garrison

Related forms

garreted, adjective

garret²

[gar-it] /ˈgær ɪt/

noun, verb (used with object), Masonry.

gallet.

Origin

1835-45; of uncertain origin

Examples from the web for garret

Above the third story there was a garret where the linen was hung to dry, and a couple of attics.
The image of the penniless artist starving in his garret makes for great opera but poor commercial logic.
And he also showed that you did not need to starve in a garret to hone your literary skills.
But she is maddeningly cheerful at the idea of having to live in a garret.
Above the warehouse was an empty garret apartment, occupying three floors.
The unrecognized genius who dies alone in a garret is largely a myth.
Friends and family despair as a once promising life is wasted on dead-end jobs and long nights by the candle in a drafty garret.

British Dictionary definitions for garret

garret

/ˈɡærɪt/

noun

another word for attic (sense 1)

Word Origin

C14: from Old French garite watchtower, from garir to protect, of Germanic origin; see wary

Word Origin and History for garret

c.1300, "turret, small tower on the roof of a house or castle," from Old French garite "watchtower, place of refuge," from garir "defend, preserve," from a Germanic source (cf. Gothic warjan "forbid," Old High German warjan "to defend"), from Proto-Germanic *warjanan, from PIE root *wer- "to cover" (see warrant (n.)). Meaning "room on uppermost floor of a house" is from early 14c. See attic. As the typical wretched abode of a poor poet, by mid-18c.