noun
bureau
A piece of furniture with drawers for storing clothes.
She keeps her sweaters in the bureau beside her bed.
Etymology
The cloth name first passed to the writing desk it covered. In some English usage, bureau then broadened to another drawer-equipped piece of furniture used for storing clothes.
More examples
- The bureau's bottom drawer holds my jeans.
- We need a smaller bureau for the guest bedroom.
- Both bureaus are full of neatly folded clothes.
Forms
bureau · bureaus
drawer noun — A sliding compartment for storing things.
Similar words
- dresser
- Usually means the same bedroom furniture, sometimes with a mirror.
- chest of drawers
- Explicitly names drawer furniture without bureau's other meanings.