garage

What it means

1. countableuncountableA building (or section of a building) used to store a car or cars, tools and other miscellaneous items.

   A little further on, to the right, was a large garage, where the charabancs stood, half in and half out of the yard.

   1931, Francis Beeding, “2/2”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps

2. CommonwealthcountabledateduncountableA place where cars are serviced and repaired.

   The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Synonyms: auto shop, car workshop, vehicle workshop

3. CommonwealthcountableuncountableA petrol filling station.

   Synonyms: petrol station, filling station, gas station, service station

In a sentence

A little further on, to the right, was a large garage, where the charabancs stood, half in and half out of the yard.

1931, Francis Beeding, “2/2”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*wer-
2. Proto-Germanic*warōną
3. Frankish*warōn
4. Proto-Germanic*warōną
5. Old Norsevara
6. Old Frenchgarer
7. Middle Frenchgarrer
8. Frenchgarer
9. Frenchgarage
10. Englishgarage

Borrowed from French garage (“keeping under cover, protection, shelter”), derivative of French garer (“to keep under cover, dock, shunt, guard, keep”), from Middle French garer, garrer, guerrer; partly from Old French garir, warir (from Old Frankish *warjan); and partly from Old French varer (“to fight, defend oneself, protect”), from Old Norse varask (“to defend oneself”), reflexive of vara (“to ware, watch out, defend”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *warjaną (“to defend, ward off”), *warōną (“to watch, protect”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to close, cover, protect, save, defend”).