Library / English Dictionary

ATTIRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Clothing of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion

Example:

battle dress

Synonyms:

attire; dress; garb

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("attire" is a kind of...):

article of clothing; clothing; habiliment; vesture; wear; wearable (a covering designed to be worn on a person's body)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "attire"):

activewear; athletic wear; sportswear (attire worn for sport or for casual wear)

getup; outfit; rig; turnout (a set of clothing (with accessories))

morning dress (formal attire for men during the daytime)

false hair; hairpiece; postiche (a covering or bunch of human or artificial hair used for disguise or adornment)

habit; riding habit (attire that is typically worn by a horseback rider (especially a woman's attire))

habit (a distinctive attire worn by a member of a religious order)

evening clothes; evening dress; eveningwear; formalwear (attire to wear on formal occasions in the evening)

finery (elaborate or showy attire and accessories)

ecclesiastical attire; ecclesiastical robe (attire that is appropriate to wear in a church)

disguise (any attire that modifies the appearance in order to conceal the wearer's identity)

costume (the prevalent fashion of dress (including accessories and hair style as well as garments))

costume (unusual or period attire not characteristic of or appropriate to the time and place)

costume (the attire characteristic of a country or a time or a social class)

costume (the attire worn in a play or at a fancy dress ball)

ao dai (the traditional dress of Vietnamese women consisting of a tunic with long sleeves and panels front and back; the tunic is worn over trousers)

Derivation:

attire (put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive

Example:

The young girls were all fancied up for the party

Synonyms:

attire; deck out; deck up; dress up; fancy up; fig out; fig up; get up; gussy up; overdress; prink; rig out; tog out; tog up; trick out; trick up

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "attire" is one way to...):

dress; get dressed (put on clothes)

Verb group:

dress; dress up (dress in a certain manner)

costume; dress up (dress in a costume)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "attire"):

dress; plume; preen; primp (dress or groom with elaborate care)

prank (dress up showily)

tart up (dress up in a cheap and provocative way)

enrobe (adorn with a robe)

bedizen; dizen (dress up garishly and tastelessly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

attire (clothing of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion)

Credits

 Context examples: 

It ran as follows: Wanted, a woman of good address, attired like a lady.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire; how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin, and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted, the sprigged, the mull, or the jackonet.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Among his minor peculiarities are that he is careless as to his attire, unclean in his person, exceedingly absent-minded in his habits, and addicted to smoking a short briar pipe, which is seldom out of his mouth.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"I will attire my Jane in satin and lace, and she shall have roses in her hair; and I will cover the head I love best with a priceless veil."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Here and there we passed Cszeks and Slovaks, all in picturesque attire, but I noticed that goitre was painfully prevalent.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Beautiful as she had seemed to him before, the lithe charm of her figure and the proud, free grace of her bearing were enhanced now by the rich simplicity of her attire.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And when at last, thinking the driver had begun to grow suspicious, he discharged the cab and ventured on foot, attired in his misfitting clothes, an object marked out for observation, into the midst of the nocturnal passengers, these two base passions raged within him like a tempest.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Miss Thorpe, however, being four years older than Miss Morland, and at least four years better informed, had a very decided advantage in discussing such points; she could compare the balls of Bath with those of Tunbridge, its fashions with the fashions of London; could rectify the opinions of her new friend in many articles of tasteful attire; could discover a flirtation between any gentleman and lady who only smiled on each other; and point out a quiz through the thickness of a crowd.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

For some days Holmes came and went at all hours in this attire, but beyond a remark that his time was spent at Hampstead, and that it was not wasted, I knew nothing of what he was doing.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Two or three times in the course of the night, attired in a long flannel wrapper in which she looked seven feet high, she appeared, like a disturbed ghost, in my room, and came to the side of the sofa on which I lay.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)