break room

noun

variants or less commonly breakroom

ˈbrāk-ˌrüm 

-ˌru̇m

plural break rooms also breakrooms

: a room in a workplace where an employee can go for a short period of rest or refreshment

At lunchtime I ordered pizza for the staff and we all ate together, somewhat stiffly, in the break room.

—Heidi Julavits

Bumping into each other in the breakroom or chatting in the elevator sometimes leads to unexpected collaboration and creative solutions.

—Elizabeth Baskin

Examples of break room in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As the dad is wheeled away for treatment, their son is taken to wait in the employee break room until the end of his mom’s shift. —Raven Brunner, People.com, 4 Apr. 2025

The prison’s dining halls, break rooms, gym and board games are for guards. —Marcos Alemán and Regina Garcia Cano, Los Angeles Times, 17 Mar. 2025

That’s how good this Steven Soderbergh film is. break room gossip 11:00 a.m. —Britina Cheng, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2025

Listeners can expect conversations that are way more break room than boardroom. —Erin Hill, People.com, 13 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1956, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for break room

• assume
• backroom
• ballroom
• barroom
• bathroom
• bedroom
• boardroom
• bridegroom
• classroom
• cloakroom
• consume
• costume