Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A short sleeveless bodice, formerly worn by women.
  • noun A blouse front formerly worn by women; a dickey.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A garment for covering the neck, made of some light fabric, as lace, muslin, or cambric, and worn under a waist, especially under one cut low at the throat.
  • noun In medieval fortification, a chemise covering a very small part of the main wall.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An under-garment, worn by women, usually covering the neck, shoulders, and breast.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An item of women’s clothing, popular in the 1860s and 1870s, worn to fill in the front and neckline of any garment.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, diminutive of chemise, shirt, from Old French; see chemise.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French

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Examples

  • She came before us wondrous clad in chemisette of green,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • She came before us wondrous clad in chemisette of green,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Aldclyffe had pulled off a kind of chemisette of Brussels net, drawn high above the throat, which she had worn with her evening dress as

    Desperate Remedies Thomas Hardy 1884

  • Can hardly bear my chemisette for weakness and for pain:

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • On me thou layest load of love the heaviest while I feel So feeble grown that under weight of chemisette I swerve.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Our shirt, chemise, chemisette, etc., was unknown to the Ancients of Europe.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • She wore a white muslin dress, a rose-colored sash, and rose-colored ribbons in the pretty cap on her head; her chemisette was moulded so deliciously by her shoulders and the loveliest rounded contours, that the sight of her awakened an irresistible desire of possession in the depths of the heart.

    The Message 2007

  • She wore a white muslin dress, a rose-colored sash, and rose-colored ribbons in the pretty cap on her head; her chemisette was moulded so deliciously by her shoulders and the loveliest rounded contours, that the sight of her awakened an irresistible desire of possession in the depths of the heart.

    The Message 2007

  • A pearl-gray dress with crimson trimmings, made with a long waist, modestly outlined the bust and covered the shoulders, still rather thin, with a chemisette which left nothing to view but the first curves of the throat where it joined the shoulders.

    Modeste Mignon 2007

  • His knee thrust between her legs, her chemisette was yanked down.

    Marriage Most Scandalous JOHANNA LINDSEY 2005

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