noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Wooden (especially oaken) panelling on the lower part of a room’s walls. uncountable, usually

   "The giggles got louder and ran around the corners of the room like rats behind the wainscotting."

2. 2
   wooden panels that can be used to line the walls of a room wordnet
3. 3
   a wainscoted wall (or wainscoted walls collectively) wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of wainscot form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

wainscotwainscotwainscotingwainscoting

Example

More examples

"The giggles got louder and ran around the corners of the room like rats behind the wainscotting."

Etymology

From wainscot + -ing. Attested since at least the 17th century.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.