bath
UK [bɑːθ] · US /bæθ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms baths bathing bathed
- noun A tub or pool which is used for bathing: bathtub.
- noun A building or area where bathing occurs.
- noun The act of bathing; an instance of this; the taking of a bath.
- noun Specifically, bathing by immersing the body in water, rather than through other means, or an instance of this. “Do you prefer baths or showers?”
- noun An act of immersing the body in a specified substance, especially for hygiene, pleasure, or wellness, or a facility for this: e.g. mud bath, steam bath.
- noun The body of liquid one bathes in.
- noun (by extension) A substance or preparation in which something is immersed. “a bath of heated sand, ashes, steam, or hot air”
- verb (transitive, Commonwealth) To wash a person or animal in a bath.
- verb (intransitive, informal, Commonwealth) To bathe (oneself); to have a bath.
- noun (historical units of measure) A former Hebrew unit of liquid volume (about 23 L or 6 gallons).
- proper noun A city in Bath and North East Somerset district, Somerset, England, famous for its baths fed by a hot spring.
- proper noun A village in the Netherlands.
- proper noun A village in New Brunswick, Canada.
- proper noun A former settlement in Placer County, California.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Richmond County, Georgia.
- proper noun A village and township in Mason County, Illinois.
- proper noun A township and unincorporated community therein, in Franklin County, Indiana.
- proper noun A township in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa.
Synonyms
bain Berkeley Springs bathtub bathing tub tub bathroom bathe
Etymology
From Middle English bath, baþ, from Old English bæþ (“bath”), from Proto-West Germanic *baþ, from Proto-Germanic *baþą (“bath”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₁- (“to warm”). Corresponding inherited verbs are beath and bathe.
Cognate with Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish bad (“bath”), Faroese and Icelandic bað (“bath”), German Bad (“bath”).
From Hebrew בַּת (baṯ).
From Middle English Bathe, from Old English Baþan, from the dative case of bæþ.
Nonstandard transliteration of Arabic بَعْث (baʕṯ, “resurrection”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The act of exposing the body, or part of the body, for purposes of cleanliness, comfort, health, etc., to water, vapor, hot air, or the like; as, a cold or a hot bath; a medicated bath; a steam bath; a hip bath.
- noun Water or other liquid for bathing.
- noun A Hebrew measure containing the tenth of a homer, or five gallons and three pints, as a measure for liquids; and two pecks and five quarts, as a dry measure.
- noun A city in the west of England, resorted to for its hot springs, which has given its name to various objects. Bath brick, a preparation of calcareous earth, in the form of a brick, used for cleaning knives, polished metal, etc. -- Bath chair, a kind of chair on wheels, as used by invalids at Bath. "People walked out, or drove out, or were pushed out in their Bath chairs." Dickens.
Etymology [AS. bæ; akin to OS. & Icel. ba, Sw., Dan., D., & G. bad, and perh. to G. bähen to foment.]
Etymology [Heb.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bath”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details