toilet

English

The Toilet of Venus (La Toilette de Vénus), by François Boucher

Western flush toilet

East Asian squat flush toilet

Ancient Roman pit toilets

An outdoor pit toilet (outhouse) at Siple Dome Field Camp, Antarctica.

Portable toilets in Georgia.

Alternative forms

• toilette (certain senses only)

Etymology

From Middle French toilette (“small cloth”), diminutive of toile (“cloth”), from their use to protect clothing while shaving or arranging hair. From its use as a private room, toilet came to refer euphemistically to lavatories and then to its fixtures, beginning in the United States in the late 19th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔɪ.lət/, /ˈtɔɪ.lɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪlɪt

Noun

toilet (plural toilets)

1. (UK, Australia, Hong Kong) A room or enclosed area containing a fixture used for urination and defecation (i.e. a toilet (sense 2)): a bathroom or water closet.

   Sorry, I was in the toilet.

   • 2002, Digby Tantam, Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice: A Narrative Framework, page 122:

     He would hit her when she cried and, if this did not work, would lock her in the toilet for hours on end.

   • 2014, C.S. Walter, Abandoned Bridges, pp. 105 f.:

     He wet his thumb with saliva pressing on the tongue, ran it up and down faster over the letter 'I' of 'TOILET', the 'LADIES TOILET' was transformed into 'LADIES TO LET' in no time.

3. A fixture used for urination and defecation, particularly one with a large bowl and ring-shaped seat which uses water to flush the waste material into a septic tank or sewer system.

   My toilet backed up. Now the bathroom's flooded.

4. (figuratively) A very shabby or dirty place.
   • 1982, The Mosquito Coast:

     Look around you. It's a toilet.

   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     Mr. Gaunt was urbane and smiling again, not a hair out of place. "Do you like this little town? Do you love it? […] "
     […]
     "I hate this fucking toilet," he said to Leland Gaunt.

5. (New Zealand) A small secondary lavatory having a fixture used for urination and defecation (i.e. a toilet (sense 2)) and sink but no bathtub or shower.
6. (obsolete) A covering of linen, silk, or tapestry, spread over a dressing table in a chamber or dressing room.
7. (obsolete) The table covered by such a cloth; a dressing table.
   • 1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, lines 121-126:

     And now, unveil’d, the toilet stands display’d,
     Each silver vase in mystic order laid.

8. (now historical or archaic) Personal grooming; the process of washing, dressing and arranging the hair.
   • 1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Oxford, published 2009, page 118:

     Against that short evening her toilet was consulted the whole day […] .

   • 1913, Rabindranath Tagore, Come as you are..., Poetry Foundation, page 85:

     Come as you are, tarry not over your toilet.

   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 111:

     Three women got down and standing on the curb they made unabashed toilets, smoothing skirts and stockings, brushing one another's back, opening parcels and donning various finery.

   • 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth, Chapter 8:

     Here, at night, a lonely but brilliantly neon-illuminated figure, I performed my toilet, watched incuriously by the Burmese seated at the tables of the tea-shops below.

9. (now rare, archaic) One's style of dressing: dress, outfit.
   • 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch , volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 25:

     It is so painful in you, Celia, that you will look at human beings as if they were merely animals with a toilette, and never see the great soul in a man's face.

   • 1917, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge:

     "It is a quarter-past two," he said. "Your telegram was dispatched about one. But no one can glance at your toilet and attire without seeing that your disturbance dates from the moment of your waking."

10. (archaic) A dressing room.
11. (obsolete) A chamber pot.

Usage notes

In the United States and Canada, toilet refers most directly to fixtures for containing or removing human waste. As such, although toilet was originally a euphemism itself, its use to describe the place where the toilets are located (e.g., "Where is the toilet?") is now considered somewhat indiscreet; instead, it is more common to employ other euphemisms such as bathroom, restroom, or WC.

Until the late 19th century, toilet referred solely to personal grooming, including bathing and hair care. This still appears in toiletries and in various set phrases, such as toilet water and toilet bag. This use is sometimes understood as a new borrowing from French, despite being the older sense of the English word. Medical jargon also includes some set phrases such as pulmonary toilet and toilet of the mouth; in both cases the word toilet means general hygiene.

Synonyms

• (room for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:bathroom
• (small secondary room for urination and defecation): half bath, half bathroom (US); cloakroom (UK)
• (pot used for urination and defecation): Thesaurus:chamber pot
• (fixture for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:toilet
• (in a nautical context): See head (item 4.1.4)

Hyponyms

• (fixture for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:toilet

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: トイレット, トイレ

Translations

Verb

toilet (third-person singular simple present toilets, present participle toileting or toiletting, simple past and past participle toileted or toiletted)

1. (dated) To dress and groom oneself.
2. To use (urinate or defecate in) a toilet.
   • 1974, Philip J. Hilts, Behavior Mod‎, Harper's Magazine Press, page 74:

     We use imitation. We take a doll, a doll that can wet, and make sure it has pants on it. We use the principle that a very effective way of learning is by teaching. Se we have him teach the doll how to toilet properly.

   • 2024 February 17 (last accessed), Jenny Morber, “Scientists turn pee into power in Uganda”, in Upworthy Science‎:

     In many developing regions, toileting at night is especially dangerous for children. Without electrical power for lighting, kids may fall into the deep pits of the latrines through broken or unsteady floorboards. Girls are sometimes assaulted by men who hide in the dark.

3. To assist another (a child, etc.) in using a toilet.

   Synonym: bathroom

References

Further reading

• toilet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Eliott, Lottie, litote

Chinese

Alternative forms

• toile

Etymology

From English toilet. The pronunciation toi¹ ji⁴ le⁴ is probably from Japanese トイレ (toire), in turn from English toilet.

Pronunciation

Noun

toilet

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) toilet; bathroom; WC

Synonyms

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from French toilette (“small cloth”) diminutive of toile (“cloth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /toalɛt/, or IPA^(key): /tɔilɛt/,

Noun

toilet n (singular definite toilettet, plural indefinite toiletter)

1. toilet (room containing lavatory); men's room, ladies' room
2. toilet (lavatory)

Inflection

Synonyms

• wc

Derived terms

Related terms

• grande toilette
• gøre toilette
• toilette

Further reading

• toilet on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French toilette (“small cloth”), from Middle French toilette.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʋaːˈlɛt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: toi‧let
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

toilet n (plural toiletten, diminutive toiletje n)

1. toilet (room containing lavatory); men's room, ladies' room

   Synonyms: privaat, wc

2. toilet (lavatory)

   Synonym: wc

3. personal grooming