| boiler room | |
| —n | |
| 1. | any room in a building (often in the basement) that contains a boiler for central heating, etc |
| 2. | the part of a steam ship that houses the boilers and furnaces |
| 3. | the room or department in which the real work of an organization goes on unseen |
| 4. | (chiefly US) an office used by a team of telephone salespeople, esp of stocks and shares, operating under high pressure |
| 5. | a. a fraudulent scheme in which investors are encouraged to buy non-existent, worthless, or over-priced shares |
| b. (as modifier): a boiler-room scam | |
| a fool or simpleton; ninny. |
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |