towel

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English

Etymology

From Middle English towayle, towel, towail, towaille, from Old French toaille (“towel”) (modern French touaille), Medieval Latin toallia, from Frankish *þwahilu (“cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *þwahaną (“to wash”). Cognate with Old High German dwahila (“towel”) (modern dialectal German Zwehle), Dutch dwaal (“towel”), dweil (“mop”), Low German Dweel (“towel”), Old English þwǣle (“band; ribbon; fillet”), Old English þwēan (“to wash”).

Pronunciation

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Particularly: "Southern American English"

Noun

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towel (plural towels)

  1. A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, such as a person after a bath.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Japanese: タオル (taoru)
  • → Swahili: taulo

Translations

Verb

towel (third-person singular simple present towels, present participle toweling or towelling, simple past and past participle toweled or towelled)

  1. (transitive) To hit with a towel.
  2. (transitive) To dry by using a towel.
    He got out of the shower and toweled himself dry.
  3. (transitive) To block up (a door, etc.) with a towel, to conceal the fumes of a recreational drug.
    • 2012, Dave Tomar, The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat:
      We would open the windows, towel the door, and turn my bedroom into an Allman Brothers concert.
  4. (UK, dialect, obsolete, transitive) To beat with a stick, or "oaken towel".

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ “towel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

towel

  1. Alternative form of towayle
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