Attire
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 One's dress; what one wears; one's clothes. countable, uncountable
"He was wearing his formal attire."
- 2 clothing of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion wordnet
- 3 The single horn of a goat, deer or stag. countable, uncountable
"The latter sign, however, may have some heraldic significance, as Larwood and Hotten mention a London token of 1666 on which a horseshoe is represented within a pair of antlers or deer's attires."
- 1 To clothe or adorn. transitive
"We will attire him in fine clothing so he can make a good impression."
- 2 put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive wordnet
Example
More examples"The snow-flake appeared larger and larger, and at last took the form of a lady dressed in the finest white crape, her attire being composed of millions of star-like particles. She was exquisitely fair and delicate, but entirely of ice, glittering, dazzling ice; her eyes gleamed like two bright stars."
Etymology
The verb is from Middle English atyren, atiren, from Old French atirier (“to equip”), from a- + tire (“rank”), akin to German Zier (“ornament”) and Old Norse tírr (“glory, renown”). The noun is from Middle English atir, from the verb.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.