VESTIBULE

anteroom, antechamber, entrance hall, hall, foyer, lobby, vestibule

(noun) a large entrance or reception room or area

vestibule

(noun) any of various bodily cavities leading to another cavity (as of the ear or vagina)

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

vestibule (plural vestibules)

(architecture) A passage, hall or room, such as a lobby, between the outer door and the interior of a building. [from the 17th c.]

(rail transport) An enclosed entrance at the end of a railway passenger car.

(medicine, anatomy, by extension) Any of a number of body cavities, serving as or resembling an entrance to another bodily space. [from the 18th c.]

Verb

vestibule (third-person singular simple present vestibules, present participle vestibuling, simple past and past participle vestibuled)

(transitive) To furnish with a vestibule or vestibules.

Source: Wiktionary

Ves"ti*bule, n. Etym: [L. vestibulum, of uncertain origin: cf. F. vestibule.]

Definition: The porch or entrance into a house; a hall or antechamber next the entrance; a lobby; a porch; a hall. Vestibule of the ear. (Anat.) See under Ear.

– Vestibule of the vulva (Anat.), a triangular space between the nymphæ, in which the orifice of the urethra is situated.

– Vestibule train (Railroads), a train of passenger cars having the space between the end doors of adjacent cars inclosed, so as to admit of leaving the doors open to provide for intercommunication between all the cars.

Syn.

– Hall; passage.

– Vestibule, Hall, Passage. A vestibule is a small apartment within the doors of a building. A hall is the first large apartment beyond the vestibule, and, in the United States, is often long and narrow, serving as a passage to the several apartments. In England, the hall is generally square or oblong, and a long, narrow space of entrance is called a passage, not a hall, as in America. Vestibule is often used in a figurative sense to denote a place of entrance. "The citizens of Rome placed the images of their ancestors in the vestibules of their houses." Bolingbroke

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition