A drawing room,or formal parlour,was used in polite society to receive visitors who came to pay formal calls during the afternoon.
a formal room where visitors can be received and entertained
In Victorian times, the drawing-room was used for comfortable sitting and as the principal room for entertaining (earlier withdrawing room, because originally used for women to withdraw after dinner).
Drawing room is short for Withdrawing Room. This was a formal room for entertaining. After dinner, the ladies of the house would withdraw to it to drink tea or coffee, leaving the men to drink port and smoke cigars in the dining room
a reception room for guests, to which the ladies withdraw after dinner, leaving the gentlemen alone with brandy and cigars (no room or time in this adaptation)
(from "withdrawing" room) a formal room for receiving visitors, and the chamber to which the ladies would "withdraw" to have tea after dinner while the men stayed at the table getting foxed and being, well, men.
A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from withdrawing room. In a large sixteenth, seventeenth or early eighteenth century English house, a withdrawing room was a room to which the owner of the house, his wife, or a distinguished guest who was occupying one of the main apartments in the house could "withdraw" for more privacy.
