suit
UK /suːt/ · US /sut/ noun, verb, proper noun
- noun (clothing) A set of clothes to be worn together, now especially a man's matching jacket and trousers (also business suit or lounge suit), or a similar outfit for a woman. “Nick hired a navy-blue suit for the wedding.”
- noun (by extension) A garment or set of garments suitable and/or required for a given task or activity: space suit, boiler suit, protective suit, swimsuit.
- noun (Pakistan, women's speech) A dress.
- noun (derogatory, slang, metonymic) A person who wears matching jacket and trousers, especially a boss or a supervisor. “Be sure to keep your nose to the grindstone today; the suits are making a "surprise" visit to this department.”
- noun A full set of armour.
- noun (law) The attempt to gain an end by legal process; a process instituted in a court of law for the recovery of a right or claim; a lawsuit. “If you take my advice, you'll file a suit against him immediately.”
- noun Petition, request, entreaty.
- noun (obsolete) The act of following or pursuing; pursuit, chase.
- verb (transitive) To make proper or suitable; to adapt or fit.
- verb (transitive, said of clothes, hairstyle or other fashion item) To be suitable or apt for one's image. “The ripped jeans didn't suit her elegant image.”
- verb (transitive, figurative) To be appropriate or apt for. “The nickname "Bullet" suits her, since she is a fast runner.”
- verb (most commonly used in the passive form, intransitive) To dress; to clothe.
- verb (intransitive, transitive) To please; to make content; to fit someone's (or one's own) taste. “will build to suit [on for-sale signs marking vacant lots]”
- verb (intransitive) To agree; to be fitted; to correspond (usually followed by to, archaically also followed by with).
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
litigation action cause lawsuit agree match answer suit of clothes case causa courtship wooing courting accommodate fit befit beseem become
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English sute, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suite, from metathesis of earlier Old French siute, from Vulgar Latin *sequita, from *sequere, from sequor, sequi, from Proto-Italic *sekʷōr, from Proto-Indo-European *sékʷetor, from *sekʷ-. Doublet of suite. Cognate with Italian seguire and Spanish seguir. Related to sue and segue.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The act of following or pursuing, as game; pursuit. [Obs.]
- noun The act of suing; the process by which one endeavors to gain an end or an object; an attempt to attain a certain result; pursuit; endeavor.
- verb To fit; to adapt; to make proper or suitable; as, to suit the action to the word. Shak.
- verb To be fitted to; to accord with; to become; to befit.
Etymology [OE. suite, F. suite, OF. suite, sieute, fr. suivre to follow, OF. sivre; perhaps influenced by L. secta. See Sue to follow, and cf. Sect, Suite.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “suit”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details