Definitions

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

  • noun A garment consisting of a length of cloth that is wrapped around the body and tied at the waist or below the armpits, worn by men and women in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Pacific islands.
  • noun A length of cloth that is wrapped around the waist and tied, worn by women as a skirt.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A garment used in the Indian archipelago, consisting of a piece of cloth which envelops the lower part of the body: worn by both sexes.
  • noun Hence The cotton cloth generally used for this garment, especially the printed cotton imported from Europe, to which the name has been given as a trade designation.

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

  • noun A sort of petticoat worn by both sexes in Java and the Malay Archipelago.

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

  • noun A garment made of a length of printed cloth wrapped about the waist that is commonly worn by men and women in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, and the Pacific islands.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a loose skirt consisting of brightly colored fabric wrapped around the body; worn by both women and men in the South Pacific

Etymologies

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

[Malay (kain) sarong, covering (cloth), sarong.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Malay sarung.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Alternative spelling sarung as in the original Malay. I don't like the reference to South Pacific as sarong is definitely of Southeast Asian origin. Polynesians probably have their own traditional words for the equivalent garment. Also there is no particular requirement that sarongs be brightly coloured and I have a few myself that clearly aren't. 'Often brightly coloured' I could live with.

    cheers,

    B

    November 14, 2007