Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A distinctive style or form of clothing; dress: clerical garb.
- n. An outward appearance; a guise: presented their radical ideas in the garb of moderation.
- v. To cover with or as if with clothing; dress.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Outward appearance; manner of speech, dress, deportment, etc.; mien; demeanor; hence, mode; manner; fashion; style of doing anything.
- n. Fashion or mode of dress, or the dress itself; dress; costume, especially as befitting or peculiar to some particular position or station in life, or characteristic of a class or period: as, dressed in his official garb; in the garb of old Gaul.
- n. Synonyms Apparel, garments, raiment, attire, habiliments, costume.
- To dress; clothe; array.
- n. A sheaf or bundle, as of grain or arrows: obsolete except in certain specific applications. In heraldry, a garb is a sheaf of any kind of grain, but specifically a sheaf of wheat. When other than wheat, the kind must be expressed. Formerly, a garb of arrows was a bundle of 24 arrows. A garb of steel consists of 30 blocks or ingots. Also
gerbe .
Wiktionary
- n. figuratively a guise, external appearance
- v. transitive To dress in garb.
- n. heraldry A wheat sheaf.
- n. A measure of arrows in the Middle Ages.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Clothing in general.
- n. The whole dress or suit of clothes worn by any person, especially when indicating rank or office.
- n. Costume; fashion.
- n. External appearance, as expressive of the feelings or character; looks; fashion or manner, as of speech.
- n. (Her.) A sheaf of grain (wheat, unless otherwise specified).
- v. To clothe; array; deck.
WordNet 3.0
- n. clothing of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion
- v. provide with clothes or put clothes on
Etymologies
- French gerbe; akin to German Garbe (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete French garbe, grace, from Italian garbo, from garbare, to please, of Germanic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I mean the religious garb is cool, cooler than the Pope's, but I was expecting more along the lines of world domination + virigin sacrifices …”
“The description of Palin's garb is comical when mentioned in such close proximity to one of Palin's stage props/accessories, Trig. gl, Pittsburgh”
“Traditionalists fear their regional garb is being obscured by tourists and designers appropriating cotton and even plastic versions of their beloved clothing.”
The Wall Street Journal: At Oktoberfest, a Controversy Brews Over Racy Designer Dirndls
“Mr. Hernandez's monochromatic costumes were 1950s-style, with the plain garb of the villagers contrasting with the cosmopolitan clothes of Neruda and his wife, Matilde, and Di Cosimo's natty, attention-getting white suit.”
“And that snow machine garb is also a killer if you have to get off and walk in it.”
“That really doesn't matter as to whether or not the above remarks qualify as prejudice -- assuming people might be terrorists because they are wearing "Muslim garb" is the textbook definition of prejudice.”
“The truth is that I worry when I am getting on an airplane and see people dressed in garb that identifies them first and foremost as Muslims.”
“The patriotic charm of pinup models posing in photos wearing sailor girl garb is not a new idea, but it has been embraced by a whole new generation of pinup models and photographers who are keeping the all American pinup sailor girl image alive.”
“Appearing in gray garb from the Denver County Jail over a white long-sleeve T-shirt, Sean Mueller, 42 years old, accepted a plea agreement that calls for no more than 40 years in prison.”
The Wall Street Journal: Guilty Plea Comes in Ponzi Scheme That Conned Elway
“The last item a Huichol abandons if he exchanges his traditional clothing for modern western garb is the ubiquitous embroidered pouch or side bag.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘garb’.
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English Weights and Measures
Most of these are names of weights and measures in use before 1500, gleaned from household accounts of English estates and colleges.
pondus, clove, wey, charrus, pisa, seam, sum, petra, peck, fatt, skep, quarter and 49 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. II
cicurate, circumforaneous, codger, comiconomenclaturist, constable, contradistinction, contraindicated, counterpane, coxcomb, decalcomania, decanal, decoction and 307 more...
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Mr. Prolagus is surprised
Words - or different usages of words I already knew - that I am learning thanks to Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.
See also ofravens' with thanks to Anne Shirley.alder, decorum, ferret, dint, wont, gauntlet, turnip, sorrel, deft, embower, scant, peck and 92 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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schinders's Words
persiflage, preterition, quidnunc, finick, termagant, otiose, magniloquent, weltschmerz, schadenfreude, piehole, malevolent, susurrus and 132 more...
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List of Heraldry Terms
Words and phrases used in blazoning heraldic devices, along with names and other terms associated with the art and science.
Other similar lists can be found on Wordnik, especially that...seiant, duciper, bourdon, pouch, scrip, staff, ananas, besant d'argent, roundle, roundel, argent, allocamelus and 743 more...
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Words I'd Like to Use Someday
thundersnow, phantasmagoria, mercurial, chimerical, taciturn, paraclete, lapis lazuli, flay, guttersnipe, wonky, misanthrope, kestrel and 583 more...
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billy shakespeare's guide to good living
hurlyburly, nave, direful, whence, sooth, dwindle, tempest-tost, withal, selfsame, wrack, unfix, recompense and 142 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, G
grocer, gabanergic, gabardine, gabbro, gaffe, gneiss, grapple, grosgrain, grommet, gratify, gossamer, goofy and 194 more...
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Dr. Jamieson's Birds
A rich list of Scottish bird (nick)names and related terms cited in Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.
stone-chatter, clocharet, bowger, coulter-neb, branchers, brissel-cock, turkey-cock, brongie, bubblyjock, polliecock, bullfit, bullfrench and 220 more...
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tomax's Words
legerdemain, yayo, extravasation, wont, faze, coxswain, concomitant, enclave, unguent, rhabdomyolysis, effluent, puerile and 432 more...
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Heraldry
azure, gules, sable, vert, purpure, or, argent, ermine, vair, charge, ordinary, cross and 118 more...
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Ptolemy's Gate
Words and phrases from Jonathan Stroud's book, Ptolemy's Gate.
fall afoul, fleet, tamarisk, krait, inkstone, hotted up, down-market, have a truck with, brio, fatalistic, knock-kneed, conserve and 210 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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OED word of the Day
Just like it says
majority, plasm, apal, statin, legerdemain, leap year, daffodil, maternal, key worker, jojoba, skelf, pose and 101 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for garb.
hernesheir A young bird. Also garbel, gorblin, a young unfledged bird. --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841. May 18, 2011
bilby
When next my Soul fared out, she wore
Plain garb and grey;
Close-buttoned from her chin to feet
She rode away;
Behind a double-bolted door
Her finery lay.
- Florence Jenney, 'Achievement'. Sep 23, 2009
travismcdermott 1591 LYLY Endym. II. ii. 24 Dares. If you be good wenches make as though you loue him, and wonder at him. Fauil. We will doe our parts. Dares. But first let vs stand aside, and let him vse his garbe, for all consisteth in his gracing. May 29, 2008