\Par"lor\, n. [OE. parlour, parlur, F. parloir, LL.
parlatorium. See {Parley}.] [Written also {parlour}.]
A room for business or social conversation, for the reception
of guests, etc. Specifically:
(a) The apartment in a monastery or nunnery where the inmates
    are permitted to meet and converse with each other, or
    with visitors and friends from without. --Piers Plowman.
(b) In large private houses, a sitting room for the family
    and for familiar guests, -- a room for less formal uses
    than the drawing-room. Esp., in modern times, the dining
    room of a house having few apartments, as a London house,
    where the dining parlor is usually on the ground floor.
(c) Commonly, in the United States, a drawing-room, or the
    room where visitors are received and entertained.
Note: ``In England people who have a drawing-room no longer
      call it a parlor, as they called it of old and till
      recently.'' --Fitzed. Hall.
{Parlor car}. See {Palace car}, under {Car}.