towel
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English
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Zusammengelegte_Handt%C3%BCcher.jpg/220px-Zusammengelegte_Handt%C3%BCcher.jpg)
Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]- enPR: toul, touʹəl
- IPA(key): /ˈtaʊ(ə)l/
- (Philadelphia) IPA(key): [tʰæɫ]
- (Southern US) IPA(key): [tʰæɒ̯ɫ], [tʰɛjɔ̯ɫ]
Audio (US): (file) Audio (UK): (file)
Noun
[edit]towel (plural towels)
- A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, such as a person after a bath.
Hyponyms
[edit]- lavabo
- see also Derived terms below
Derived terms
[edit]- bath towel
- beach towel
- cum towel
- cup towel
- dishtowel
- dish towel
- golf towel
- hand towel
- jack towel
- kitchen towel
- oaken towel
- paper towel
- paper toweling
- roller towel
- sanitary towel
- shop towel
- show towel
- tea towel
- throw in the towel
- towelette
- towel gourd
- towelhead
- towel-horse
- toweling
- towelless
- towellike
- towel rail
- towel snap
- Turkish towel
Descendants
[edit]Translations
[edit]cloth used for wiping
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Verb
[edit]towel (third-person singular simple present towels, present participle toweling or towelling, simple past and past participle toweled or towelled)
- (transitive) To hit with a towel.
- (transitive) To dry by using a towel.
- He got out of the shower and toweled himself dry.
- (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.
- (UK, dialect, obsolete, transitive) To beat with a stick, or "oaken towel".[1]
Derived terms
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ “towel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]towel
- Alternative form of towayle
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/aʊl
- Rhymes:English/aʊl/1 syllable
- Rhymes:English/aʊəl
- Rhymes:English/aʊəl/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- British English
- English dialectal terms
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns