Definitions

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

  • noun A style of dress, including garments, accessories, and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period, or people.
  • noun An outfit or a disguise worn on Mardi Gras, Halloween, or similar occasions.
  • noun A set of clothes appropriate for a particular occasion or season.
  • transitive verb To put a costume on; dress.
  • transitive verb To design or furnish costumes for.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An obsolete form of custom.
  • noun Custom or usage with respect to place and time, as represented in art or literature; distinctive character or habit in action, appearance, dress, etc.; hence, keeping or congruity in representation.
  • noun Mode of dressing; external dress.
  • To dress; furnish with a costume; provide appropriate dress for: as, to costume a play; “costumed in black,”
  • Reflexively, to put an unusual dress on; dress for a special occasion.

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

  • noun Dress in general; esp., the distinctive style of dress of a people, class, or period.
  • noun Such an arrangement of accessories, as in a picture, statue, poem, or play, as is appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described.
  • noun A character dress, used at fancy balls or for dramatic purposes.

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

  • noun A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people.
  • noun An outfit or a disguise worn as fancy dress etc.
  • noun A set of clothes appropriate for a particular occasion or season.
  • verb To dress or adorn with a costume or appropriate garb.

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

  • noun the attire worn in a play or at a fancy dress ball
  • verb furnish with costumes; as for a film or play
  • verb dress in a costume
  • noun unusual or period attire not characteristic of or appropriate to the time and place
  • noun the attire characteristic of a country or a time or a social class
  • noun the prevalent fashion of dress (including accessories and hair style as well as garments)

Etymologies

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

[French, from Italian, style, dress, from Latin cōnsuētūdō, custom; see custom.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French costume, from Italian costuma, from Medieval Latin costuma, ultimately, from Latin consuetudo ("custom"); see custom, which is a doublet of costume.

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