a person who is staying temporarily in a location, with meals provided. Someone staying at a boarding house.

In India often the term is used in conjunction with residential elementary, middle and high schools, which may have students who are boarders and others who are “day scholars” or commuters.

The concept of boarding schools became popular during the period of British colonial rule. English families would send their kids away to boarding schools in the cooler hills to avoid the heat of India’s plains. After India’s independence, most of these boarding schools became destinations for India’s upper middle class seeking good education for their kids.  (There are also purely Indian boarding schools, such as the Doon School in Dehradun, Uttarakhand).

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