garb

See also: gʻarb

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɑː(ɹ)b/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)b

Etymology 1

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”).

Noun

garb (countable and uncountable, plural garbs)

1. Fashion, style of dressing oneself up. [from late 16^thc.]
2. A type of dress or clothing. [from early 17^thc.]
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.

3. (figurative) A guise, external appearance.
   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel.

Translations

clothing

• Bulgarian: облекло (bg) n (obleklo), носия (bg) f (nosija)
• Georgian: ტანსაცმელი (ṭansacmeli), მორთულობა (mortuloba), მოკაზმულობა (moḳazmuloba), სამოსი (ka) (samosi)
• Hungarian: öltözék (hu)
• Macedonian: о́блека (mk) f (óbleka), но́сија f (nósija)
• Maori: pakikau
• Occitan: estil (oc)
• Polish: strój (pl) m
• Portuguese: traje (pt) m
• Russian: оде́жда (ru) f (odéžda), наря́д (ru) m (narjád)
• Scottish Gaelic: èideadh m
• Swedish: klädsel (sv) n

Verb

garb (third-person singular simple present garbs, present participle garbing, simple past and past participle garbed)

1. (transitive) To dress in garb.

Translations

to dress in garb

• Bulgarian: обличам (bg) (obličam)
• Georgian: ჩაცმა (čacma), შემოსვა (šemosva)
• Hungarian: öltöztet (hu)
• Macedonian: о́блече (óbleče)

Etymology 2

From French gerbe; akin to German Garbe. Doublet of gerbe.

Noun

garb (plural garbs)

1. (heraldry) A wheatsheaf.
2. A measure of arrows in the Middle Ages.
   • 1957, H. R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 118:

     Yorkshire supplied 500 bows, and 580 garbs of arrows, 360 of which had iron heads pointed with steel.

Translations

wheat sheaf

• French: gerbe (fr) f
• Hungarian: kéve (hu)
• Italian: covone m
• Spanish: gavilla (es) f
• Swedish: kärve (sv) c, halmkärve c, sädeskärve c

measure of arrows

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Nahuatl: ^{(please verify)} quemitl

Anagrams

• ARGB, brag, grab

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡarp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -arp
• Syllabification: garb

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Polish garb, from Proto-Slavic *gъrbъ.

Noun

garb m animal or m inan (diminutive garbek or garbik)

1. a hump (rounded fleshy mass)
2. a hump (deformity of the human back)
3. dead weight (that which is useless or excess)

   Synonyms: balast, obciążenie

Declension

Declension of garb

	singular	plural
nominative	garb	garby
genitive	garbu/garba	garbów
dative	garbowi	garbom
accusative	garb/garba	garby
instrumental	garbem	garbami
locative	garbie	garbach
vocative	garbie	garby

Derived terms

adjectives

• bezgarbny
• garbaty
• garbiasty
• garbonosy

 

nouns

• garbiak
• garbienie
• garbus

 

verbs

• garbić impf

 

Related terms

nouns

• garbacizna
• garbatek
• garbatka
• garbatość
• garbusek
• garbusik
• garbuska
• gurba

 

verbs

• garbacić impf
• garbacieć impf
• zgarbić pf

 

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

garb

1. second-person singular imperative of garbić

Further reading

• garb in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• garb in Polish dictionaries at PWN