Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The state of being partially or very casually dressed.
- noun Casual or lounging attire.
- noun An intentionally careless manner.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Undress, or negligent dress; specifically, a loose morning-dress.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An undress; a loose, negligent dress; deshabille.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Extreme
casual ordisorderly dress, shirt tail out, sleeves unbuttoned, etc. - noun A loose, negligent
dress .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the state of being carelessly or partially dressed
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The first time we meet Victoria, she is wretching her guts into the toilet with her mother standing above her in dishabille, smoking a cigarette into her face while threatening to throw her out of the house.
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The moment we alighted, "My friend has been ill," said she, "and is in dishabille, will you shew her an apartment, that she may alter her dress?"
The Castle of Wolfenbach Eliza 1793
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The word dishabille (from the French déshabillé 'undressed', which still refers to a negligee) uses a common euphemism for nudity to refer to being partially or very casually dressed, a matter of comparison with the fashion-sensitive 'proper' dress, not to an actual revealing characteris - tic of the 'lesser' garments worn.
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This coffee-table collection of industrial-therapeutic dishabille — 70 abandoned asylums in 30 states, photographed over six years — is as gorgeous and meditative as it is harrowing.
Cover to Cover 2010
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Surveying the park occupants' slovenly dishabille, I thought of a recent report that students in Yale's elite "Grand Strategy" seminar have been notified of discounts from a tailor from Bangkok and been advised that "Once you have a custom suit, it's really hard to go back."
Jim Sleeper: Markets, New Media, the Occupiers, and the Next Step Jim Sleeper 2011
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This coffee-table collection of industrial-therapeutic dishabille — 70 abandoned asylums in 30 states, photographed over six years — is as gorgeous and meditative as it is harrowing.
Cover to Cover 2010
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This coffee-table collection of industrial-therapeutic dishabille — 70 abandoned asylums in 30 states, photographed over six years — is as gorgeous and meditative as it is harrowing.
Cover to Cover 2010
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It made most of the men uneasy when she would try to drag them on to the dance floor, they in their finest dishabille, she in blue jean bellbottoms and nothing else.
One of Us Con Chapman 2011
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Every now and then some would-be curmudgeon rises up on his hind legs and yowls at the sky that the latest form of social networking is a blight on the cultural landscape and proves that people have nothing better to do than post pictures of their pets in various shocking forms of dishabille.
MIND MELD: How Does Blogging and Social Networking Affect the Publishing Industry? 2009
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Surveying the park occupants' slovenly dishabille, I thought of a recent report that students in Yale's elite "Grand Strategy" seminar have been notified of discounts from a tailor from Bangkok and been advised that "Once you have a custom suit, it's really hard to go back."
Jim Sleeper: Markets, New Media, the Occupiers, and the Next Step Jim Sleeper 2011
chained_bear commented on the word dishabille
The state of being partly undressed, or dressed in a negligent or careless style; undress.
Usage: (1885 Athenæum 7 Nov. 601/1) "The shortcomings of English costume pale before the déshabillé of the Dutch colonial ladies."
February 5, 2007
arby commented on the word dishabille
My beloved Andy Partridge has an adorable story about how growing up he thought "disabell" was slang for breasts because his mother would say "You saw me in dishabille".
OK, so maybe you had to be there. Trust me, it was adorable.
December 13, 2007
sarra commented on the word dishabille
Ouch. Wasn't aware this was a legitimate variation. My future self (wanting to make a correction) has possibly been saved some embarrassment.
December 13, 2007
sionnach commented on the word dishabille
Bryan Garner seems to consider this to be the only correct spelling.
June 21, 2009
sionnach commented on the word dishabille
Bryan Garner seems to consider this to be the only correct spelling.
June 21, 2009
john commented on the word dishabille
“This coffee-table collection of industrial-therapeutic dishabille—70 abandoned asylums in 30 states, photographed over six years—is as gorgeous and meditative as it is harrowing.”
The Atlantic, Cover to Cover, by Lynne A. Isbell, April, 2010
March 24, 2010
ruzuzu commented on the word dishabille
I was having a hard time remembering this word just now--I kept wanting to say "disheveled."
March 22, 2014