Towel

//ˈtaʊ(ə)l// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, such as a person after a bath.

    "He needed a towel for wiping the slippery floor."

  2. 2
    a rectangular piece of absorbent cloth (or paper) for drying or wiping wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To hit with a towel. transitive
  2. 2
    wipe with a towel wordnet
  3. 3
    To dry by using a towel. transitive

    "He got out of the shower and toweled himself dry."

  4. 4
    To block up (a door, etc.) with a towel, to conceal the fumes of a recreational drug. transitive

    "We would open the windows, towel the door, and turn my bedroom into an Allman Brothers concert."

  5. 5
    To beat with a stick, or "oaken towel". UK, dialectal, obsolete, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
air-dryanhydratebakeblotbroombrush

Antonyms

All antonyms
napkin

Example

More examples

"The manager threw in the towel in defeat and planned how to win the next game."

Etymology

From Middle English towayle, towel, towail, towaille, from Old French toaille (“towel”) (modern French touaille), Medieval Latin toallia, from Frankish *þwahilu (“cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *þwahaną (“to wash”). Cognate with Old High German dwahila (“towel”) (modern dialectal German Zwehle), Dutch dwaal (“towel”), dweil (“mop”), Low German Dweel (“towel”), Old English þwǣle (“band; ribbon; fillet”), Old English þwēan (“to wash”).

Related phrases

Terrible TowelTurkish towelbath towelbeach towelcum towelcup toweldish towelgolf towelhand toweljack towelkitchen toweloaken towel

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.