Library / English Dictionary

GARB

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Clothing of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion

Example:

battle dress

Synonyms:

attire; dress; garb

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("garb" is a kind of...):

article of clothing; clothing; habiliment; vesture; wear; wearable (a covering designed to be worn on a person's body)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "garb"):

activewear; athletic wear; sportswear (attire worn for sport or for casual wear)

getup; outfit; rig; turnout (a set of clothing (with accessories))

morning dress (formal attire for men during the daytime)

false hair; hairpiece; postiche (a covering or bunch of human or artificial hair used for disguise or adornment)

habit; riding habit (attire that is typically worn by a horseback rider (especially a woman's attire))

habit (a distinctive attire worn by a member of a religious order)

evening clothes; evening dress; eveningwear; formalwear (attire to wear on formal occasions in the evening)

finery (elaborate or showy attire and accessories)

ecclesiastical attire; ecclesiastical robe (attire that is appropriate to wear in a church)

disguise (any attire that modifies the appearance in order to conceal the wearer's identity)

costume (the prevalent fashion of dress (including accessories and hair style as well as garments))

costume (unusual or period attire not characteristic of or appropriate to the time and place)

costume (the attire characteristic of a country or a time or a social class)

costume (the attire worn in a play or at a fancy dress ball)

ao dai (the traditional dress of Vietnamese women consisting of a tunic with long sleeves and panels front and back; the tunic is worn over trousers)

Derivation:

garb (provide with clothes or put clothes on)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Provide with clothes or put clothes on

Example:

Parents must feed and dress their child

Synonyms:

apparel; clothe; dress; enclothe; fit out; garb; garment; habilitate; raiment; tog

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "garb" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

Verb group:

dress; get dressed (put on clothes)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "garb"):

gown (dress in a gown)

robe; vest (clothe formally; especially in ecclesiastical robes)

costume; dress up (dress in a costume)

coat (cover or provide with a coat)

shoe (furnish with shoes)

corset (dress with a corset)

underdress (dress without sufficient warmth)

overclothe; overdress (dress too warmly)

vesture (provide or cover with a cloak)

habit (put a habit on)

shirt (put a shirt on)

frock (put a frock on)

jacket (put a jacket on)

cover; wrap up (clothe, as if for protection from the elements)

prim; prim out; prim up (dress primly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

garb (clothing of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Yet she was meanly dressed, a coarse blue petticoat and a linen jacket being her only garb; her fair hair was plaited but not adorned: she looked patient yet sad.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The post-chaise stopped; the driver rang the door-bell, and a gentleman alighted attired in travelling garb; but it was not Mr. Rochester; it was a tall, fashionable-looking man, a stranger.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As for me, I am an inveterate opponent of socialism just as I am an inveterate opponent of your own mongrel democracy that is nothing else than pseudo- socialism masquerading under a garb of words that will not stand the test of the dictionary.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Under the temporary pressure of pecuniary liabilities, contracted with a view to their immediate liquidation, but remaining unliquidated through a combination of circumstances, I have been under the necessity of assuming a garb from which my natural instincts recoil—I allude to spectacles—and possessing myself of a cognomen, to which I can establish no legitimate pretensions.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Behind him walked a smaller man with his hair touched with gray, who was clad in the same white garb.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Your garb and manner were restricted by rule; your air was often diffident, and altogether that of one refined by nature, but absolutely unused to society, and a good deal afraid of making herself disadvantageously conspicuous by some solecism or blunder; yet when addressed, you lifted a keen, a daring, and a glowing eye to your interlocutor's face: there was penetration and power in each glance you gave; when plied by close questions, you found ready and round answers.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Beside him stood his giant recruit, still clad in the home-spun and ill-fitting garments of the fuller of Lymington, with arms and legs shooting out of his scanty garb.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Two young, graceful women—ladies in every point—sat, one in a low rocking-chair, the other on a lower stool; both wore deep mourning of crape and bombazeen, which sombre garb singularly set off very fair necks and faces: a large old pointer dog rested its massive head on the knee of one girl—in the lap of the other was cushioned a black cat.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was lay-sister Agatha with the high gold crucifix, and the three incense-bearers, and the two-and-twenty garbed in white, who cast flowers upon either side of them and sang sweetly the while.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The youth was not clad in monastic garb, but in lay attire, though his jerkin, cloak and hose were all of a sombre hue, as befitted one who dwelt in sacred precincts.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)