Definitions

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

  • noun A wig, especially a peruke.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as peruke.
  • noun In zoology, a periwinkle.
  • To dress with a periwig; hence, to put a head-dress upon; cover or dress the head of.

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

  • noun A headdress of false hair, usually covering the whole head, and representing the natural hair; a wig.
  • transitive verb To dress with a periwig, or with false hair.

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

  • noun historical wig
  • verb transitive To dress with a periwig, or with false hair; to bewig.

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

  • noun a wig for men that was fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries

Etymologies

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

[By folk etymology from Old French perruque; see peruke.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of French perruque. Compare peruke, wig.

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Examples

  • "And the ghost also wears his periwig, which is so ridiculous that any self-respecting spectre would refuse to copy it."

    The Queen Pedauque Anatole France 1884

  • Need I say that the periwig is a triumph of the friseur's art? "

    A Daughter of Raasay A Tale of the '45 William MacLeod Raine 1912

  • His wife, Anne, who had stopped in to leave some mended costumes and re-curl his periwig he is forever unravelling, dropped a kiss on his forehead.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • Hart, a man hung on an enormous frame, with thickly waved brown hair although he often wears a periwig, has a booming voice and says he is the great nephew of Shakespeare—but then everybody says that.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • Hart, a man hung on an enormous frame, with thickly waved brown hair although he often wears a periwig, has a booming voice and says he is the great nephew of Shakespeare—but then everybody says that.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • I also hope that it will induce him to adopt French fashions and disregard the periwig.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • His wife, Anne, who had stopped in to leave some mended costumes and re-curl his periwig he is forever unravelling, dropped a kiss on his forehead.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • “Humph,” grumbled Hart non-committally, tugging at his great periwig—new and too mousy for his rosy colouring and ill fitting to boot.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • I also hope that it will induce him to adopt French fashions and disregard the periwig.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • He was wearing the most astonishing canary-yellow hat, complete with ostrich plumes and small feathers and velvet ribbons and gold buttons plus an enormous blond periwig with ringlets almost reaching his waist.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

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