Meanings
plural dying rooms
- A room in a Chinese orphanage where unwanted children are left to die from neglect.
The following day questions were raised in the House of Commons about China's one-child policy and its dying rooms.
1996, United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women: Hearings..., page 2411 more example
There have been studies showing that orphanages in parts of China are nothing more than torture chambers at best. An article by Hansel (2002) describes one orphanage as a “dying room.” It was observed that the children are chained to a chair over a bucket […]
2005, Andrea Barnes, The Handbook of Women, Psychology, and the Law, page 388
Origin
Probably introduced or popularized by the 1995 television documentary The Dying Rooms.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
dying room. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dying%20room
“dying room.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dying%20room. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dying room,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dying%20room.
Source: dying room on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.