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gown - 7 dictionary results

gown

[goun]
–noun
1. a woman's dress or robe, esp. one that is full-length.
2. nightgown.
3. dressing gown.
4. evening gown.
5. a loose, flowing outer garment in any of various forms, worn by a man or woman as distinctive of office, profession, or status: an academic gown.
6. the student and teaching body in a university or college town.
–verb (used with object)
7. to dress in a gown.

Origin:
1300–50; ME goune < OF < LL gunna fur or leather garment


1. frock. See dress.

evening gown

–noun
a woman's formal dress, usually having a floor-length skirt.
Also called gown.
gown   (goun)   
n.  
  1. A long loose flowing garment, such as a robe or nightgown.
  2. A long, usually formal dress for a woman.
  3. A robe or smock worn in operating rooms and other parts of hospitals as a guard against contamination.
  4. A distinctive outer robe worn on ceremonial occasions, as by scholars or clerics.
  5. The faculty and student body of a university: perfect accord between town and gown.
v.   gowned, gown·ing, gowns

v.   tr.
To clothe (oneself or another) with a gown.
v.   intr.
To dress in a gown.

[Middle English goune, from Old French, from Late Latin gunna, leather garment.]

Gown

Gown\, n. [OE. goune, prob. from W. gwn gown, loose robe, akin to Ir. gunn, Gael. g[`u]n; cf. OF. gone, prob. of the same origin.]

1. A loose, flowing upper garment; especially: (a) The ordinary outer dress of a woman; as, a calico or silk gown. (b) The official robe of certain professional men and scholars, as university students and officers, barristers, judges, etc.; hence, the dress of peace; the dress of civil officers, in distinction from military.

He Mars deposed, and arms to gowns made yield. --Dryden. (c) A loose wrapper worn by gentlemen within doors; a dressing gown.

2. Any sort of dress or garb.

He comes . . . in the gown of humility. --Shak.
Language Translation for : gown
Spanish: vestido largo,
German: das Abendkleid,
Japanese: 夜会服用ガウン

gown 
c.1300, from O.Fr. goune, from L.L. gunna "leather garment, skin, hide," of unknown origin. Used by St. Boniface (8c.) for a fur garment permitted for old or infirm monks. Klein writes it is probably "a word adopted from a language of the Apennine or the Balkan Peninsula." O.E.D. points to Byzantine Gk. gouna, a word for a coarse garment sometimes made of skins. In 18c., gown was the common word for what is now usually styled a dress. It was maintained more in Amer.Eng. than in Britain, but was somewhat revived 20c. in fashion senses and in comb. forms (e.g. bridal gown, nightgown). Meaning "flowing robe worn as a badge of office or authority" is from 1377, on image of the Roman toga. As collective singular for "residents of a university" (1659) it is now usually opposed to town.

gown (goun)
n.
A robe or smock worn in operating rooms and other parts of hospitals as a guard against contamination.

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