night-cellarn.
/ˈnʌɪtˌsɛlə/, U.S. /ˈnaɪtˌsɛlər/ Now historical.
A cellar open during the night as a (usually disreputable) tavern or meeting-place.
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the world > food and drink > drink > drinking > drinking place > [noun] > tavern or public house > low drinking-house
sot's-hof1532
bousing ken1567
fuddling-school1680
sot-bay1707
night-cellar1729
sot-hole1755
lush-ken1790
lush-crib1819
Tom and Jerry shop1824
Tom and Jerry1836
deadfall1837
jerry1851
shoful1851
cribc1865
bucket-shop1875
barrel-house1883
lushing-ken1883
shebang1901
barrel shop1904
blood house1913
smoke joint1931
shypoo1936
smoke-shop1937
dive bar1974
1729 R. Savage Author to be Lett 12 I generally..spend the Evening with him at a Night-Cellar in the Strand.
1743 H. Fielding Jonathan Wild i. xiv, in Misc. III. 88 Wild was no sooner retired to a Night-Cellar, than he began to reflect on the Sweets he had that Day enjoyed.
1796 E. Burke Two Lett. Peace Regicide Directory France i. 116 By digging a night cellar for such thieves, murderers, and house-breakers, as never infested the world.
1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge xvi. 21 Night-cellars..for the reception and entertainment of the most abandoned of both sexes.
1860 Harper's Mag. June 97/2 I stepped into a night cellar much frequented by the fancy, dived into an alcove, drew the curtains, and called for supper and a toddy.
1890 Fortn. Rev. 54 219 They probably took a wherry from Somerset Stairs, ‘the first land they made’ being the notorious night-cellar in Thames Street, by Billingsgate, known as the Dark House.
1974 ELH 41 292 In [Plate] 9 Idle is among brawling, thieving hoodlums in a night-cellar, being betrayed by the girl he was in bed with in Plate 7.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1729