1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin. 1381/2 There in the said antichamber all the said earle of Derbies officers and gentlemen wearing liueries were appointed to staie.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia Antichambre, any outward chamber which is next or near the bed-chamber.

a1667 A. Cowley Liberty in Wks. (1710) II. 679 He's besieg'd by two or three hundred suitors; and the Hall and Antichambers (all the outworks) possess'd by the Enemy.

1709 London Gaz. No. 4558 Her Majesty met them half-way of her Anti-chamber.

1789 P. Smyth tr. H. Aldrich Archit. (1818) 138 Beyond these ante-chambers were larger rooms or halls.

1841 J. L. Motley Let. 26 Dec. in Corr. (1889) I. iv. 93 From the library you reach the ante-chamber..of one of the prettiest houses in St. Petersburg.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 39 He stayed long in the antechamber, and sent in his name by several servants.

1884 R. W. Church Bacon i. 20 The servile and insincere flatterers..who crowded the antechambers of the great Queen.

1909 F. W. Rolfe Don Renato 309 Don Eros again admits the..gentlemen and pages to the antechamber of Duke Renato.

1954 Househ. Guide & Almanac (News of World) 14 The ante chamber to the tomb had been broken into many times during the past by grave robbers, but the party found the inner burial chamber untouched.

1979 B. Malamud Assistant xxvii. 226 At noon in the chapel's antechamber, Ida..sat in a high-backed tapestried chair, rocking.

2006 N.Y. Mag. 18 Sept. 40/3 There are four rooms here, plus an honest-to-God antechamber. Destabilized, it would easily fetch north of $3,000 a month.

1672 H. Chamberlen tr. F. Mauriceau Dis. Women with Child i. 7 It is not sufficient for the Man's Yard to enter the Vagina, the Anti-chamber to the womb.

1845 R. B. Todd & W. Bowman Physiol. Anat. I. 434 The mouth, the ante-chamber to the digestive canal.

1862 C. Darwin On Var. Contrivances Orchids Fertilised i. 21 The ante-chamber to the nectary..is here small.

1930 Engineering 9 May 607/3 It is clear that the ante-chamber type of engine is likely to have a lower efficiency than the alternative design.

1990 Courier-Mail (Nexis) 30 June The left atrium is the antechamber to the heart which receives blood from the lungs.

2009 P. P. D. Vasquez in M. Sindou Pract. Handbk. Neurosurg. I. 489 The administration of contrast medium is usually performed by transcutaneous puncture of the antechamber of a ventricular shunt.

a1677 T. Manton 190 Serm. on 119th Psalm (1681) cxxxvi. 842 The Anti-Chamber of eternity.

1752 London Mag. Dec. 550/2 This world is but the antichamber of heaven.

1825 J. Neal Brother Jonathan II. 347 The ante-chamber of death.

1842 B. F. Taylor Attractions Lang. i. vii. 59 'Tis thus the mind is peopled from without; thus they come thronging in, that make the inner world; thus eye and ear are antechambers to the mind, where these sensations come, but wait not long.

1875 P. G. Hamerton Intellect. Life (ed. 2) iii. ii. 81 Grammars and dictionaries are antechambers.

1913 Times 17 Sept. 10/3 There was the preconscious, which was the ante-chamber of consciousness.

1957 M. Djilas New Class 34 Even if it is presumed that state capitalism is nothing other than the ‘antechamber of socialism’, as Lenin emphasized.

1992 Toronto Star (Nexis) 18 July d1 Canadians have entered today's heart of darkness, trying to bring peace, or at least a ceasefire, to this antechamber of hell.

1884 Á. Vámbéry Life & Adventures x. 82 A poor Khan..who has been in the capital ante-chambering and begging for some office for months past.

1890 tr. R. Wagner in Meister 24 Nov. 115 I had fallen on my poor dog, who..was antechambering in the street, in waiting for his fortunate master, to whom it was permitted to antechamber among his fellow-men.

1954 J. P. Stern tr. R. W. Meyer Leibniz & 17th-Century Revol. iii.163 Eighteen months he tarried in Vienna, ante-chambering and making plans.

2008 R. Theobald tr. F. Mayröcker Brütt xxii. 147 I am antechambering in my own quarters, I say to Blum.

1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 2 Oct. 1/3 All intriguing Paris was antechambering him.

1908 Cambrian Mar. 104/1 Designing men, instead of ante-chambering and bribing courtiers, turned their attention to manipulating members of Parliament.