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toilet

Pronunciation: /ˈtɔɪlɪt/
Translate toilet | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of toilet

noun

  • 1a large bowl for urinating or defecating into, typically plumbed into a sewage system and with a flushing mechanism; a lavatory:Liz heard the toilet flush
  • a room, building, or cubicle containing a toilet or toilets: a public toilet [as modifier]:someone pushed at the toilet door
  • 2 [in singular] the process of washing oneself, dressing, and attending to one’s appearance:her toilet completed, she finally went back downstairs
  • [as modifier] denoting articles used in the process of washing, dressing, and attending to one’s appearance:a bathroom cabinet stocked with toilet articles
  • the cleansing of part of a person’s body as a medical procedure.

verb (toilets, toileting, toileted)

[with object] (usually as noun toileting)
  • assist or supervise (someone, especially an infant or invalid) in using a toilet.
  • [no object] use a toilet: sufferers may need help with dressing, bathing, and toileting

Phrases

go down the toilet

informal be completely lost or wasted; fail utterly:they didn’t want to see their investment go down the toilet

Origin:

mid 16th century: from French toilette 'cloth, wrapper', diminutive of toile (see toile). The word originally denoted a cloth used as a wrapper for clothes; then (in the 17th century) a cloth cover for a dressing table, the articles used in dressing, and the process of dressing, later also of washing oneself (sense 2 of the noun). In the 19th century the word came to denote a dressing room, and, in the US, one with washing facilities; hence, a lavatory (early 20th century)

toilet in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of toilet in the US English dictionary
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