Definitions

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

  • noun A scented liquid made of alcohol and various fragrant oils.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A perfumed spirit, first made on a large scale at Cologne in 1709 by Jean Farina, and still extensively produced there by persons bearing or assuming that name.

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

  • noun A perfumed liquid, composed of alcohol and certain aromatic oils, used in the toilet; -- called also cologne water and eau de cologne.

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

  • noun A type of perfume consisting of 2-5% essential oils, 70-90 % alcohol and water.

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

  • noun a commercial center and river port in western Germany on the Rhine River; flourished during the 15th century as a member of the Hanseatic League
  • noun a perfumed liquid made of essential oils and alcohol

Etymologies

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

[Short for cologne (water), translation of French (eau de) Cologne, after Cologne.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Short for eau de Cologne < French Eau de Cologne, the name given to the original product in 1709. The success of the original Eau de Cologne inspired many imitators and it has become a genericized trademark

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