garb
/ɡɑː(ɹ)b/ noun, verb
Forms garbs garbing garbed
- noun Fashion, style of dressing oneself up.
- noun A type of dress or clothing.
- noun (figurative) A guise, external appearance.
- verb (transitive) To dress in garb.
- noun (heraldry) A wheatsheaf.
- noun A measure of arrows in the Middle Ages.
Synonyms
habit habilitate attire dress clothe enclothe raiment tog garment fit out apparel
Etymology
From Middle French garbe ("graceful outline, silhouette"; > Modern French galbe), from Italian garbo (“grace, elegance”), from Germanic (compare Old High German garwi, garawi (“dress, equipment, preparation”), Middle High German gerwe (“outfitting, jewelry, clothing, robe, regalia”), modern German Gärbe, Gerbe and English gear), ultimately from Frankish *garwijan (“to prepare”), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną (“to prepare”).
From Middle English garbe, from Old French garbe, variant of jarbe; akin to German Garbe. Doublet of gerbe.
Webster’s 1913
- noun External appearance, as expressive of the feelings or character; looks; fashion or manner, as of speech.
- noun A sheaf of grain (wheat, unless otherwise specified).
- verb To clothe; array; deck.
Etymology [OF. garbe looks, countenance, grace, ornament, fr. OHG. garawi, garwi, ornament, dress. akin to E. gear. See Gear, n.]
Etymology [F. gerbe, OF. also garbe, OHG. garba, G. garbe; cf. Skr. grbh to seize, E. grab.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “garb”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details