Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A quilt, usually with a washable cover, that may be used in place of a bedspread and top sheet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A quilt or comfortable stuffed with swans' down or eider-down.
Wiktionary
WordNet 3.0
- n. a soft quilt usually filled with the down of the eider
Etymologies
- French, down, from Old French, alteration of dumet, diminutive of dum, dun, from Old Norse dūnn.
Examples
“Sharing the duvet is a fair price to pay for having someone around to look after, who looks after you, too.”
“A thin duvet of the same pattern rested at the foot of the bed and the pillows at the top were in a darker but similar shade of blue.”
“Still, I've never seen a comforter itself called a duvet or down in English in Russian there is a word пуховик, meaning just that”
“Maybe, you know, it’s what we call a duvet ad that covers the whole thing.”
In the Times R&D Lab, the future of news is the future of advertising » Nieman Journalism Lab
“It’s in a nice, warm spot, and the duvet is soft and comfortable.”
“And then I find myself burrowing under what the English would call a duvet and the Americans would call a comforter.”
“Fitted sheets, top sheets, pillowcases, and something called a duvet.”
“I just love bedding, especially when the pillowcases aren't the same pattern as the top or bottom sheets and the duvet is a completely different, yet coordinating, fabric altogether.”
“Our duvet is a beautiful lighter gray - and I want to keep it in the black / gray / white family.”
“I mean Amber did tell her BF that they had a special toilet just for men to wash their members in called a duvet … you can't make this sh*t up.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘duvet’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 137 more...
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Schwa-Free
Words of more than one syllable that include no schwas in their pronunciation.
(Note for pedants: some of these words have more than one pronunciation. As long as just one of the possi...decoy, ballet, survey, sashay, argon, lilac, sumac, café, princess, dildo, wordy, flighty and 30 more...
bilby British. Jun 20, 2010
phantasee Never heard of the song though... Jun 20, 2010
phantasee Haha, this reminds me of my friend :)
She calls it duvet, though I've always known it as duna.
She's South African, and I've grown up in Australia.
I suppose, that's the difference.
She also calls rubbish bins, dust bins.
And traffic lights, robots.
The quirks that South African's put into the English language make me giggle, though I love them more each time I hear them. Jun 20, 2010
dain Great word and song. Nov 28, 2008
lampbane "And you don't seem to understand
A shame you seemed an honest man
And all the fears you hold so dear
Will turn to whisper in your ear
And you know what they say might hurt you
And you know that it means so much
And you don't even feel a thing" Jan 8, 2007