Definitions

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

  • noun The possessions, such as clothing and linens, that a bride assembles for her marriage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bundle.
  • noun The clothes and other outfit of a bride which she brings with her from her former home.

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

  • noun The collective lighter equipments or outfit of a bride, including clothes, jewelry, and the like; especially, that which is provided for her by her family.

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

  • noun obsolete A bundle.
  • noun The clothes and linen etc. that a bride collects for her wedding and married life.

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

  • noun the personal outfit of a bride; clothes and accessories and linens

Etymologies

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

[French, from Old French, diminutive of trousse, bundle; see truss.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French trousseau, diminutive of trousse ‘bundle’.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word trousseau.

Examples

  • The _trousseau_ will probably be sent down from London in a week, unless she shall go to town to choose it, which is the more likely event, as among French ladies the trousseau is generally a more important matter than the gentleman; and then, I presume, you will be relieved from all _anxiety_ upon the subject. "

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 Various

  • -- Then, when the day of days arrives for a girl and the trousseau is to be selected, only the best and most becoming garments are to be considered for this great event.

    Archive 2005-09-01 2005

  • -- Then, when the day of days arrives for a girl and the trousseau is to be selected, only the best and most becoming garments are to be considered for this great event.

    VALUE OF INTEREST IN CLOTHES 2005

  • Judith had a happy day buying her spring "trousseau" -- Nancy had cautioned her to lay in a goodly supply of white skirts and middies for the "sports" term -- and then came the looked-for morning when she waited for the Montreal express that was to bring her this best friend -- whom she hadn't met a short seven months before and whom now she was sure she couldn't live without!

    Judy of York Hill Ethel Hume Bennett

  • She was folding carefully the white undergarment she had finished making for her college "trousseau" -- as her father called it.

    Keineth Jane Abbott

  • The trousseau is another feminine custom that has practically fallen into disuse.

    The Vanishing Trousseau elena maria vidal 2009

  • The trousseau is another feminine custom that has practically fallen into disuse.

    Archive 2009-01-01 elena maria vidal 2009

  • Her trousseau was a mere cartload, given the expense of freight from Rome.

    Hadrian's Wall.html Dietrich, William 2004

  • If the check her father furnishes her for her trousseau is a generous one it is a wise provision to put a part of it aside for later use, and in so doing she has the equivalent of a wardrobe that will last her for a year or more.

    The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing A Manual of Ready Reference Joseph Triemens

  • Why the acquisition of a trousseau should be a purely feminine prerogative I have never been able to understand.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 22, 1914 Various

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Perry Mason - Season 6, Episode 8 - "The Case of the Stand-In Sister"

    March 19, 2007

  • "One challenger was a car-bombing in Beirut right outside a mosque, timed to go off as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers. It killed 80 people and wounded 256. Most of the dead were girls and women, who had been leaving the mosque, though the ferocity of the blast "burned babies in their beds," "killed a bride buying her trousseau," and "blew away three children as they walked home from the mosque." It also "devastated the main street of the densely populated" West Beirut suburb, reported Nora Boustany three years later in the Washington Post.

    The intended target had been the Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who escaped. The bombing was carried out by Reagan's CIA and his Saudi allies, with Britain's help, and was specifically authorized by CIA Director William Casey, according to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's account in his book Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987. Little is known beyond the bare facts, thanks to rigorous adherence to the doctrine that we do not investigate our own crimes (unless they become too prominent to suppress, and the inquiry can be limited to some low-level "bad apples" who were naturally "out of control")."

    'The Most Wanted List', Noam Chomsky.

    February 28, 2008