library

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a room where books are kept

   they had brandy in the library

2. 2
   noun

   An institution which holds books and/or other forms of media for use by the public or qualified people often lending them out, as well as providing various other services for its users.

   She went to exchange her books at her local library.

3. 3
   noun

   A collection of books or other forms of stored information.

   A small library of books has been written on the subject.

4. 4
   noun

   A collection of software routines that provide functionality to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.

   A static library is much like any other library in that it contains a bunch of code for your application to use.

5. 5
   noun

   The deck or draw pile.

   At the conclusion of every duel, each player must show the remaining cards in his or her hand to the opponent to verify that no Restricted List duplicate cards appear there (e.g., to prove that a second Time Walk wasn't drawn from his library).

6. 6
   noun

   a depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study

7. 7
   noun

   a building that houses a collection of books and other materials

8. 8
   noun

   (computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use

Etymology

From Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarium (“bookcase, chest for books”), from librarius (“concerning books”), from liber (“the inner bark of trees; paper, parchment, book”), probably derived from a Proto-Indo-European base *leub(ʰ)- (“to strip, to peel”). Displaced native Middle English bochous, bokhus (literally “book house”), from Old English bōchūs (compare bookhouse). Romance cognates often mean “bookshop” instead: French librairie, Italian libreria, Spanish librería, Romanian librărie and Portuguese livraria. This is a relati…