toilet

Meanings

Noun

• A covering of linen, silk, or tapestry, spread over a dressing table in a chamber or dressing room.
• The table covered by such a cloth; a dressing table.
• Personal grooming; the process of washing, dressing and arranging the hair.
• One's style of dressing: dress, outfit.
• A dressing room.
• A room or enclosed area containing a toilet: a bathroom or water closet.
• A small secondary lavatory having a toilet and sink but no bathtub or shower.
• A chamber pot.
• 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.
• A very shabby or dirty place.

Verb

• To dress and groom oneself.
• To use the toilet.
• To assist another (a child, etc.) in using the toilet.

Related

Similar words

• half bath, half bathroom ; cloakroom
• See head (item 4.1.4)

Origin

• From Middle French toilette ("small cloth"), diminutive of toile, 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.