Definitions

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

  • noun The act or process of dressing or grooming oneself; toilet.
  • noun A person's dress or style of dress.
  • noun A gown or costume.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See toilet.

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

  • noun See toilet, 3.

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

  • noun archaic A dressing table, typically covered to the floor with cloth (originally, toile) and lace, on which stood a mirror, which might also be draped in lace.
  • noun Alternative spelling of toilet.

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

  • noun the act of dressing and preparing yourself

Etymologies

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

[French; see toilet.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French toilette, more at toilet.

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Examples

  • He added that "her toilette is rich but bizarre, and recalls the dress of Guercini's sibyls" with their loosely fitting, shoulder-baring costumes, again reminiscent of Sappho and the Grecian-draped Emma Hamilton (qtd. in Fraser,

    Framing Romantic Dress: Mary Robinson, Princess Caroline and the Sex/Text 2006

  • Originally, a toilette was a dressing table and all its accoutrements, including a toile covering that hung to the floor.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • Originally, a toilette was a dressing table and all its accoutrements, including a toile covering that hung to the floor.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • Happiness is the poetry of woman, as the toilette is her tinsel.

    Father Goriot 2003

  • An indispensable feature of the toilette is the so-called

    The Secret Memoirs of the Courts of Europe Fontenoy, Mme La Marquise De 1900

  • Her body was modestly invested in a thin pattern of tattoo, and a gauze-work of oil and camwood; the rest of the toilette was a dwarf pigeon-tail of fan - palm, like that of the men, and a manner of apron, white beads, and tree bark, greasy and reddened: the latter was tucked under and over the five lines of cowries, which acted as cestus to the portly middle, "big as a budget."

    Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1 Richard Francis Burton 1855

  • A simple robe of _organdie_, with long sleeves, a _canezou_ of net, a light scarf, and a pretty _chapeau_ of _paille de riz_, form this becoming toilette, which is considered a suitable one for all theatres, except the Opera, where ladies go in a richer dress.

    The Idler in France Marguerite Blessington 1819

  • Mademoiselle Mars presides also over her toilette, which is always appropriate and becoming.

    The Idler in France Marguerite Blessington 1819

  • With a shrill little laugh, the lady kissed her dear friend affectionately -- and if the caress was not returned with very great fervour, it may be presumed that this coldness was due more to the unlovely impression created by the night 'toilette' of the Ever -

    God's Good Man Marie Corelli 1889

  • With a shrill little laugh, the lady kissed her dear friend affectionately -- and if the caress was not returned with very great fervour, it may be presumed that this coldness was due more to the unlovely impression created by the night 'toilette' of the Ever -

    God's Good Man Marie Corelli 1889

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