A room made specially secure for the custody of persons or things; esp. a fire- and burglar-proof room in which valuables are deposited for safety, e.g., at the Mint, a bank, etc.
1761. Foote, Liar, II. Her father an Indian governor, shut up in the strong room [i.e., the ‘Black Hole’] at Calcutta, left her all his wealth.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., vii. The persons we have mentioned remained in the strong-room of the prison.
1856. G. Price, Treat. Fire & Thief-proof Deposit., viii. 94. The doors of fire-proof closets and strong-rooms are constructed in the same manner as the doors of safes. Ibid., 99. Portable strong rooms are made altogether of wrought-iron plates.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, xxxi. They took him to the strong-room, and manacled his ankles together…, and fastened his body down by broad bands of ticking.
1885. Law Times’ Rep., LIII. 83/2. The plate … is now stowed away in the strong room of a bank.
attrib. 1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib. Brit., II. No. 6105. A model showing the arrangement of the bolts and locks as fixed on a strong-room door.
