suit

English

Etymology

From Middle English sute, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suite and Old French sieute, siute (modern suite), originally a participle adjective from Vulgar Latin *sequita (for secūta), from Latin sequi (“to follow”), because the component garments "follow each other", i.e. are worn together. See also the doublet suite. Cognate with Italian seguire and Spanish seguir. Related to sue and segue.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /s(j)uːt/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (Wales, Canada) IPA^(key): /sɪu̯t/
• Rhymes: -uːt
• Homophone: soot (accents with the FOOT-GOOSE merger and yod-dropping)

Noun

suit (plural suits)

1. A set of clothes to be worn together, now especially a man's matching jacket and trousers (also business suit or lounge suit), or a similar outfit for a woman.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.

   • 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.

   Nick hired a navy-blue suit for the wedding.

2. (by extension) A garment or set of garments suitable and/or required for a given task or activity: space suit, boiler suit, protective suit, swimsuit.
3. (Pakistan, women's speech) a dress.
4. (derogatory, slang, metonymically) A person who wears matching jacket and trousers, especially a boss or a supervisor.

   Be sure to keep your nose to the grindstone today; the suits are making a "surprise" visit to this department.

   • 1996, Ani DiFranco (lyrics and music), “Napoleon”, in Dilate:

     You had an army / Of suits behind you

   • 2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 29:

     Two smartly dressed suits walked up to the doctor. "Are you alright Dr. La Perouse?"

   • 2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN:

     Suits didn't wear suits any more—they wore Tibetan prayer beads coiled around their wrists. But they slithered in a suitlike way.

5. A full set of armour.
6. (law) The attempt to gain an end by legal process; a process instituted in a court of law for the recovery of a right or claim; a lawsuit.

   If you take my advice, you'll file a suit against him immediately.

7. Petition, request, entreaty.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv:

     Tam[burlaine]. Are you the wittie King of Perſea?
     Myc[etes]. I marrie am I: haue you any ſute to me?
     Tam[burlaine]. I woulde intreate you to ſpeake but three wiſe wordes.

8. (obsolete) The act of following or pursuing; pursuit, chase.
9. Pursuit of a love-interest; wooing, courtship.
   • 1725–1726, Homer, “(please specify the book or chapter of the Odyssey)”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, and Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend,
     Till this funereal web my labors end.

10. (obsolete) The act of suing; the pursuit of a particular object or goal.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 60:

      Thenceforth the suitt of earthly conquest shonne.

11. The full set of sails required for a ship.
13. (card games) Each of the sets of a pack of cards distinguished by color and/or specific emblems, such as the spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs of traditional Anglo, Hispanic, and French playing cards.
    • 1785, William Cowper, The Task:

      To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort
      Her mingled suits and sequences.

14. (obsolete) Regular order; succession.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Vicissitude of Things”, in The Essayes , 3rd edition, London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

    Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again.

15. (archaic) A company of attendants or followers; a retinue.
16. (archaic) A group of similar or related objects or items considered as a whole; a suite (of rooms etc.)
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, pages 212–213:

      "You must wear these to-day, my dear child," said Lord Norbourne, as, entering the dressing-room of his daughter, he laid a suit of pearls on her table

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• suite

Descendants

• → Swahili: suti

Translations

See also

Suits in English · suits (see also: cards, playing cards) (layout · text)
hearts	diamonds	spades	clubs

References

• suit on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

suit (third-person singular simple present suits, present participle suiting, simple past and past participle suited)

1. (transitive) To make proper or suitable; to adapt or fit.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 266, column 2:

     but let your owne Diſcretion be your Tutor: Sute the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action,

2. (said of clothes, hairstyle or other fashion item, transitive) To be suitable or apt for one's image.

   The ripped jeans didn't suit her elegant image.

   That new top suits you. Where did you buy it?

3. (transitive) To be appropriate or apt for.

   The nickname "Bullet" suits her, since she is a fast runner.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Cymon and Iphigenia, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     Ill suits his cloth the praise of railing well.

   • c. 1700, Matthew Prior, epistle to Dr. Sherlock

     Raise her notes to that sublime degree / Which suits song of piety and thee.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 0029:

     “ […] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

   • 1968, Fred Neil (lyrics and music), “Everybody's Talkin'”, performed by Harry Nilsson:

     I'm going where the sun keeps shinin' […] / Going where the weather suits my clothes

4. (most commonly used in the passive form, intransitive) To dress; to clothe.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     So went he suited to his watery tomb.

5. To please; to make content; to fit one's taste.

   He is well suited with his place.

   My new job suits me, as I work fewer hours and don't have to commute so much.

   • 2022 November 16, Nigel Harris, “Endless news... little context”, in RAIL, number 970, page 3:

     This arrangement suited everybody - right up until the moment that it suddenly didn't, when unions were able to point a loaded gun at management's head in any disputes.

6. (intransitive) To agree; to be fitted; to correspond (usually followed by to, archaically also followed by with)

   Synonyms: agree, match, answer

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     The place itself was suiting to his care.

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iii, page 1:

     Give me not an office / That suits with me so ill.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• ITUs, Situ, TUIs, Tsui, UTIs, Uist, iust, situ, tuis, utis

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɥi/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: çui, suis
• Rhymes: -ɥi

Verb

suit

1. third-person singular present indicative of suivre

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈsu.it/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsu.it/,

Verb

suit

1. third-person singular present active indicative of suō

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from English suit.

Noun

suit m (plural suits)

1. (Jersey) suit (of clothes)

Synonyms

• fa

Romanian

Etymology

Past participle of sui.

Noun

suit n (uncountable)

1. climbing

Declension

Verb

suit (past participle of sui)

1. past participle of sui