/ˈsɔː.nə/, /ˈsaʊ.nə/, /ˈsɑː.nə/
OriginBorrowed from Finnish sauna. Doublet of stack.
- A room or a house designed for heat sessions.
“The hotel has a sauna in the basement.”
“Of course, it will never get -100 here like it does in Antarctica, but a 300-degree swing was still theoretically possible on a record-cold Minnesota morning–if we got the sauna hot enough.”
- The act of using a sauna.
“John had a sauna after his swim.”
“Joanne went for a sauna after her swim.”
“One of my favorite saunas was just one go and thirteen minutes long, including clean up time.”
- A public sauna.
- In some countries, a business with bath-like facilities that is actually a brothel or a place for (non-commercial) sexual encounters; a bathhouse or massage parlour.
“McPhail ran Maitland's brothels—knocking-shops in Maryhill, Riddrie, Dennistoun, and the more upscale saunas in the West End and city centre.”
- figuratively, informalA very hot place or room.
Formssaunas(plural) · saunas(present, singular, third-person) · saunaing(participle, present) · saunaed(participle, past) · saunaed(past)