Trousseau
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The clothes and linen, etc., that a bride collects or that is given to her for her wedding and married life, especially a traditional or formal set of these.
"Trousseaus of German Heiresses.—Despatches from Berlin told recently of the visit to that city of a wealthy German mother and her two daughters. for the purpose of buying trousseaus for the girls who are said to be perhaps the richest heiresses of the world. […] Frau Krupp, widow of the great gunmaker of Essen [Friedrich Alfred Krupp], and her daughters, Bertha and Barbara, have just been here, the object of their visit being to buy the wedding-trousseaus for her daughters."
- 2 the personal outfit of a bride; clothes and accessories and linens wordnet
- 3 A bundle. obsolete
- 1 A variety of red wine grape of the species Vitis vinifera originating in eastern France which is often used in port wine; Bastardo.
Example
More examples"Trousseaus of German Heiresses.—Despatches from Berlin told recently of the visit to that city of a wealthy German mother and her two daughters. for the purpose of buying trousseaus for the girls who are said to be perhaps the richest heiresses of the world. […] Frau Krupp, widow of the great gunmaker of Essen [Friedrich Alfred Krupp], and her daughters, Bertha and Barbara, have just been here, the object of their visit being to buy the wedding-trousseaus for her daughters."
Etymology
Borrowed from French trousseau, diminutive of trousse (“bundle”).
From French trousseau, diminutive of trousse (“bundle”), possibly from the fact that the grapes in each bunch appear tightly packed together.
Related phrases
More for "trousseau"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.