toilet
EnglishEdit
The Toilet of Venus (La Toilette de Vénus), by François Boucher
Western flush toilet
East Asian squat flush toilet
Ancient Roman pit toilets
Alternative formsEdit
- toilette (certain senses only)
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French toilette (“small cloth”), diminutive of toile (“cloth”), from their use to protect clothing while shaving or arranging hair. From its use as a private room, toilet came to refer euphemistically to lavatories and then to its fixtures, beginning in the United States in the late 19th century.[1]
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
toilet (plural toilets)
- (obsolete) A covering of linen, silk, or tapestry, spread over a dressing table in a chamber or dressing room. [17th–19th c.]
- (obsolete) The table covered by such a cloth; a dressing table. [17th–19th c.]
- 1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, lines 121-126:
- And now, unveil’d, the toilet stands display’d,
- Each silver vase in mystic order laid.
- 1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, lines 121-126:
- (now historical or archaic) Personal grooming; the process of washing, dressing and arranging the hair. [from 17th c.]
- 1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Oxford 2009, p. 118:
- Against that short evening her toilet was consulted the whole day […] .
- 1913, Rabindranath Tagore, (“Come as you are...”), Poetry Foundation 1913, p. 85:
- Come as you are, tarry not over your toilet.
- 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, page 111:
- Three women got down and standing on the curb they made unabashed toilets, smoothing skirts and stockings, brushing one another's back, opening parcels and donning various finery.
- 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth, Chapter 8:
- Here, at night, a lonely but brilliantly neon-illuminated figure, I performed my toilet, watched incuriously by the Burmese seated at the tables of the tea-shops below.
- 1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Oxford 2009, p. 118:
- (now rare, archaic) One's style of dressing: dress, outfit. [from 18th c.]
- 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, OCLC 948783829, book I, page 25:
- It is so painful in you, Celia, that you will look at human beings as if they were merely animals with a toilette, and never see the great soul in a man's face.
- 1917, Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge":
- "It is a quarter-past two," he said. "Your telegram was dispatched about one. But no one can glance at your toilet and attire without seeing that your disturbance dates from the moment of your waking."
- (archaic) A dressing room. [from 19th c.]
- (UK, Australia) A room or enclosed area containing a fixture used for urination and defecation (i.e. a toilet (sense 9)): a bathroom or water closet. [from 19th c.]
- Sorry, I was in the toilet.
- 2002, Digby Tantam, Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice: A Narrative Framework, p. 122:
- He would hit her when she cried and, if this did not work, would lock her in the toilet for hours on end.
- 2014, C.S. Walter, Abandoned Bridges, pp. 105 f.:
- (New Zealand) A small secondary lavatory having a fixture used for urination and defecation (i.e. a toilet (sense 9)) and sink but no bathtub or shower.
- (obsolete) A chamber pot.
- A fixture used for urination and defecation, particularly one with a large bowl and ring-shaped seat which uses water to flush the waste material into a septic tank or sewer system. [from 19th c.]
- My toilet backed up. Now the bathroom's flooded.
- (figuratively) A very shabby or dirty place. [from 20th c.]
- 1982, The Mosquito Coast:
- Look around you. It's a toilet.
- 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:
- Mr. Gaunt was urbane and smiling again, not a hair out of place. "Do you like this little town? Do you love it? […] "
[…]
"I hate this fucking toilet," he said to Leland Gaunt.
- 1982, The Mosquito Coast:
Usage notesEdit
In the United States and Canada, toilet refers most directly to fixtures for containing or removing human waste. As such, although toilet was originally a euphemism itself, its use to describe the place where the toilets are located (e.g., "Where is the toilet?") is now considered somewhat indiscreet; instead, it is more common to employ other euphemisms such as bathroom, restroom, or WC.
Until the late 19th century, toilet referred solely to personal grooming, including bathing and hair care. This still appears in toiletries and in various set phrases, such as toilet water and toilet bag. This use is sometimes understood as a new borrowing from French, despite being the older sense of the English word. Medical jargon also includes some set phrases such as “pulmonary toilet” and “toilet of the mouth”; in both cases the word toilet means general hygiene.
SynonymsEdit
- (room for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:bathroom
- (small secondary room for urination and defecation): half bath, half bathroom (US); cloakroom (UK)
- (pot used for urination and defecation): Thesaurus:chamber pot
- (fixture for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:toilet
- (in a nautical context): See head (item 4.1.4)
HyponymsEdit
- (fixture for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:toilet
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
TranslationsEdit
personal grooming
|
dressing room
|
room used for urination and defecation — See also translations at bathroom, men's room, ladies' room, outhouse, portable toilet, latrine, shitter
|
fixture used for urination and defecation — See also translations at flush toilet, squat toilet, chemical toilet, urinal, latrine
|
place resembling a filthy toilet
|
- 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
|
VerbEdit
toilet (third-person singular simple present toilets, present participle toileting or toiletting, simple past and past participle toileted or toiletted)
- (dated) To dress and groom oneself.
- To use the toilet.
- 1974, Philip J. Hilts, Behavior Mod[1], Harper's Magazine Press, page 74:
- We use imitation. We take a doll, a doll that can wet, and make sure it has pants on it. We use the principle that a very effective way of learning is by teaching. Se we have him teach the doll how to toilet properly.
- To assist another (a child, etc.) in using the toilet.
ReferencesEdit
- ^ "toilet, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. (2014), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Further readingEdit
AnagramsEdit
ChineseEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
toilet
SynonymsEdit
DanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from French toilette (“small cloth”) diminutive of toile (“cloth”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
toilet n (singular definite toilettet, plural indefinite toiletter)
- toilet (room containing lavatory); men's room, ladies' room
- toilet (lavatory)
InflectionEdit
Declension of toilet
| neuter gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | toilet | toilettet | toiletter | toiletterne |
| genitive | toilets | toilettets | toiletters | toiletternes |
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
Further readingEdit
toilet on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia da
DutchEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from French toilette (“small cloth”), from Middle French toilette.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
toilet n (plural toiletten, diminutive toiletje n)
- toilet (room containing lavatory); men's room, ladies' room
- toilet (lavatory)
- Synonym: wc
- personal grooming
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- → Indonesian: toilet
IndonesianEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Dutch toilet, from French toilette (“small cloth”) diminutive of toile (“cloth”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
toilèt (first-person possessive toiletku, second-person possessive toiletmu, third-person possessive toiletnya)
- toilet (personal grooming).
- toilet, room used for urination and defecation.
- toilet, fixture used for urination and defecation.
Further readingEdit
- “toilet” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.
Tok PisinEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
toilet