Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A piece of absorbent cloth or paper used for wiping or drying.
  • intransitive verb To wipe or rub dry with a towel.
  • intransitive verb To dry oneself with a towel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as tewel.
  • To rub or wipe with a towel.
  • To cudgel; lam.
  • To use a towel; rub or wipe with a towel.
  • noun A cloth used for wiping anything dry; especially, a cloth for drying the person after bathing or washing.
  • noun Eccles.:
  • noun The rich covering of silk and gold which used to be laid over the top of the altar except during mass.
  • noun A linen altarcloth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, as the person after a bath.
  • noun (Bot.) the fruit of the cucurbitaceous plant Luffa Ægyptiaca; also, the plant itself. The fruit is very fibrous, and, when separated from its rind and seeds, is used as a sponge or towel. Called also Egyptian bath sponge, and dishcloth.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. To beat with a stick.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, as a person after a bath.
  • verb To hit with a towel.
  • verb To dry by using a towel.
  • verb UK, dialect, obsolete To beat with a stick.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb wipe with a towel
  • noun a rectangular piece of absorbent cloth (or paper) for drying or wiping

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English towaille, from Old French toaille, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English towel, towail, towaille, from Old French toaille ("towel") (Modern French touaille), from Frankish *þwahila (“cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *þwahilō (“wash-cloth", literally, "something used for washing”), from Proto-Germanic *þwahanan (“to wash”), from Proto-Indo-European *tʷak- (“to bathe”). Cognate with Old High German dwahila ("towel") (Modern German dialectal Zwehle), Dutch dwaal ("towel"), dweil ("mop"), Old English þwēan ("to wash").

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