Subscriber login


Forgot your password?

Library card login

Other

carpet

Pronunciation: /ˈkɑːpɪt/
Translate carpet | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of carpet

noun

  • 1a floor covering made from thick woven fabric:the house has fitted carpets throughout [mass noun]:the floor was covered with carpet
  • a large rug, especially an oriental one:priceless Persian carpets
  • a thick or soft expanse or layer of something:carpets of wood anemones and bluebells
  • informal, chiefly US a type of artificial playing surface on a tennis court or sports field: anybody’s batting average must benefit from being able to play on the carpet [as modifier]:the New York carpet courts
  • 2 [with modifier] a slender moth marked with undulating bands of colour across the wings.
    • Many species in the family Geometridae, including the garden carpet (Xanthorhoe fluctuata)

verb (carpets, carpeting, carpeted)

[with object]
  • 1cover with carpet:the stairs were carpeted in a lovely shade of red
  • cover with a thick or soft expanse or layer of something:the meadows are carpeted with flowers
  • 2British informal reprimand severely:the Chancellor of the Exchequer carpeted the bank bosses

Phrases

on the carpet

informal being severely reprimanded by someone in authority:we’ve all been on the carpet for the chances we took
[possibly from carpet in the sense 'table covering', referring to ‘the carpet of the council table’, before which one would be summoned for reprimand; or simply referring to the carpet in front of a superior's desk]

sweep something under the carpet

conceal or ignore a problem or difficulty in the hope that it will be forgotten: the Salvation Army feared the scheme was an attempt to sweep the problem under the carpet

Origin:

Middle English (denoting a thick fabric used as a cover for a table or bed): from Old French carpite or medieval Latin carpita, from obsolete Italian carpita 'woollen counterpane', based on Latin carpere 'pluck, pull to pieces'

carpet in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of carpet in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

  |  Cite

Word of the day

epithalamium

/ ˌɛpɪθəˈleɪmɪəm /
noun
a song or poem celebrating a marriage …