Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A support, such as a hoop, worn beneath a skirt to extend it horizontally from the waist, used by European women in the 1500s and 1600s.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A contrivance for extending the skirts of women's dresses, resembling the modern hooped skirt and made of ribs of whalebone run into a cloth foundation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A hoop skirt or hoop petticoat, or other light, elastic material, used to extend the petticoat.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun now historical A
hooped structure in cloth worn to extend theskirt of women's dresses; a hoopedpetticoat .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a hoop worn beneath a skirt to extend it horizontally; worn by European women in the 16th and 17th centuries
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word farthingale.
Examples
-
I stare at them as I am laced into my corset and hoop-skirted farthingale.
Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer Lucy Weston 2011
-
I stare at them as I am laced into my corset and hoop-skirted farthingale.
Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer Lucy Weston 2011
-
“I believe on my word,” said the page, approaching the window also, “it was in that very farthingale that she captivated the heart of gentle King Jamie, which procured our poor Queen her precious bargain of a brother.”
The Abbot 2008
-
We did not disdain the word in farthingale = pet en air.
-
Catherine Seyton presently exclaimed, “They were bearing the dishes across the court, marshalled by the Lady Lochleven herself, dressed out in her highest and stiffest ruff, with her partlet and sleeves of cyprus, and her huge old-fashioned farthingale of crimson velvet.”
The Abbot 2008
-
“Would you have your fair greyhound, dear lady, grow up a tall and true Cotswold dog, that can pull down a stag of ten, or one of those smooth-skinned poppets which the Florence ladies lead about with a ring of bells round its neck, and a flannel farthingale over its loins?”
Westward Ho! 2007
-
A bell with an old voice — which I dare say in its time had often said to the house, Here is the green farthingale, Here is the diamond – hilted sword, Here are the shoes with red heels and the blue solitaire — sounded gravely in the moonlight, and two cherry – colored maids came fluttering out to receive Estella.
Great Expectations 2007
-
She could feel underclothes, linen drawers, silken chemise, a farthingale with its stiffened hoops.
Ill Met By Moonlight Lackey, Mercedes 2005
-
The Marie Antoinette-styled skirt (think farthingale hips and a little bustle in the bum) had a train and was beaded with crystals as well.
qdiosa Diary Entry qdiosa 2005
-
Persons of fashion had, by the way, the advantage formerly of being better distinguished from the vulgar than at present; for, what the ancient farthingale and more modern hoop were to court ladies, the sword was to the gentleman; an article of dress, which only rendered those ridiculous who assumed it for the nonce, without being in the habit of wearing it.
sionnach commented on the word farthingale
hoop skirt, Tudor ancestor of the 19th century crinoline
October 6, 2007
frindley commented on the word farthingale
Takes the form of a coarse linen underskirt stretched over iron wire to support the skirts. Also known as a vertugardin or in Spain as a guard-infanta
October 12, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word farthingale
"Its scales rose to form a stiff, brilliantly colored armor, a farthingale glimmering every shade of violet and green."
"Hungerford Bridge" by Elizabeth Hand: p 122 of Errantry: Strange Stories
April 28, 2013
Gammerstang commented on the word farthingale
(noun) - A fourth part of a penny; any very small thing. --Joseph Worcester's Dictionary of the English Language, 1881
February 6, 2018