Lavatory, toilet, restroom, cloakroom; loo, bog, john, porcelain throne. A standard, polite, and slightly old-fashioned or formal noun derived from the verb убирать (historically meaning “to tidy up” or “to dress/gussy up”, as it originally referred to a dressing room). Today, it is used exclusively to denote a bathroom: 1. A clean, polite way to ask for or describe a public toilet in a restaurant, theatre, or museum (где здесь находится уборная? — “where is the lavatory located here?”); 2. A slightly elevated, formal term for the bathroom or toilet at home, often used to avoid more blunt words like туалет (он заперся в уборной — “he locked himself in the restroom”).
— Свет надо тушить за собой в уборной, вот что я вам скажу, Пелагея Петровна, — говорила та женщина, перед которой была кастрюля с какой-то снедью, от которой валил пар, — а то мы на выселение на вас подадим!
You should turn off the light after yourself in the bathroom, that’s what I have to say to you, Pelageya Petrovna, the woman said, in front of whom was a pot with some kind of food, from which steam was rising, or else we’ll evict you!
(Михаил Булгаков, Мастер и Маргарита)
