Vomitorium
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A passage located behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre used as an exit for the crowds
"1822, John Taaffe, A Comment on the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, John Murray, page 161, […] the way that the greatest width of the interior of the Flavian amphitheatre would be ascertained, if a line were drawn from one of the vomitoria of the west side, in the uppermost story, to the eastern vomitorium, precisely facing it."
- 2 An area in which vomiting takes place, in particular a chamber supposedly used by ancient Romans to vomit during a feast so they could continue eating.
"1944, Lewis Mumford, The Condition of Man, Harcourt, Brace & World (1944), p. 467, In the rich man's house the vomitorium became an essential chamber: the place where the guzzler of rich food emptied his stomach, so that he might come back to the feast for more."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"1822, John Taaffe, A Comment on the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, John Murray, page 161, […] the way that the greatest width of the interior of the Flavian amphitheatre would be ascertained, if a line were drawn from one of the vomitoria of the west side, in the uppermost story, to the eastern vomitorium, precisely facing it."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin vomitōrium (“entrance to an amphitheatre”), substantive of vomitōrius (“emetic, provoking vomiting”), from vomō (“vomit”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.