/attire-meaning

/attire-meaning-etymology-synonyms

-) Verb.

-) Pronunciation and accent: ətaɪə(r)

-) Third-person singular simple present: attires.

-) Preterite tense, preterite participle: attired. 

-) Present participle: attiring.

-) Etymology: from Old French atirier “to arrange, array, dress”, which is from tire, an obsolete French word for “row”, “rank”. The English noun TIER “rank, row” is also from this obsolete French tire.

-) It is dated from the end of 1200.

-) Transitively: to adorn (a person) with a attire, dress, or apparel; to take on (something intended more for the sake of flaunting it, or of complying with some requirement, than of protecting the body).

-) Translation: vestire, in Italian; vestir, in Spanish; habiller, vêtir, in French.

-) Synonyms for “attire”: to array, clothe, garment, robe.

-) Antonyms of “attire”: undress, disrobe, unclothe, strip, bare, denude, divest, nude.

They attired me for the coffin - three or four dark figures which flitted busily to and fro. As these crossed the direct line of my vision, they affected me as forms; but upon passing to my side, their images impressed me with the idea of shrieks, groans, and other dismal expressions of terror, of horror, or of wo.

Poe… The Colloquy… 1841

-) Chiefly in the passive or in the reflexive:

[Julia] received a message from the marquis to attend him instantly. She obeyed, and he bade her prepare to receive the duke, who that morning purposed to visit the castle. He commanded her to attire herself richly, and to welcome him with smiles.

A. Radcliffe... A Sicilian Romance… 1790

A young lady sat in one of the boxes; she was elegantly attired, and seemed to occupy the united attentions of many Frenchmen.

C. Marryat… Frank Mildmay… 1829

From his chain, hung a scutcheon; with metal and color, resplendent upon his breast, of the ancient arms of Islington. One so attired could be no mean person.

W. Gardiner… Music of Nature… 1832

She then hastily attired herself for walking, and leaving word that she should return within a couple of hours, hurried away towards her uncle's house.

Dickens… Nicholas… 1839

… travel-stained though he was, he was well and even richly attired, and without being overdressed, looked a gallant gentleman.

Dickens… Barnaby Rudge… 1841

The Captain being at length attired to his own complete satisfaction, and having glanced at himself from head to foot in a shaving-glass which he removed from a nail for that purpose, took up his knotted stick, and said he was ready.

Dickens… Dombey and So… 1848

They were probably attired like Robin Hood's men, to whom, indeed, they are compared in the course of the play.

Wilde… The Truth of Masks… 1886

-) With the preposition “in” or “with” + the word denotative of the attire:

[The person] was long- visaged, and pale, with a red beard of above a fortnight's growth. He was attired in a brownish-black coat, which would have shewed more holes than it did, had not the linen, which appeared through it, been entirely of the same colour with the cloth.

H. Fielding… Amelia… 1751

Mr Vanslyperken, attired in his full uniform, ordered his boat to be manned and pulled on board.

Marryat… Frank Mildmay… 1829

In an absolute phrenzy of wrath, I turned at once upon him who had thus interrupted me, and seized him violently by tile collar. He was attired, as I had expected, in a costume altogether similar to my own; wearing a Spanish cloak of blue velvet, begirt about the waist with a crimson belt sustaining a rapier. A mask of black silk entirely covered his face.

Poe… William… 1839

He was attired, under his greatcoat, in a full suit of black

Dickens… Barnaby… 1841

From the same repository she brought forth a night-jacket, in which she also attired herself.

Dickens… Martin… 1844

Girls of Basutoland, South Africa, are expected to attire themselves with rings of braided grass and cowhide, and white clay rubbed on their bodies and legs. These young girls are first instructed for a period of some weeks in the details of sexual intercourse.

F. Martinson… Infant and Child Sexuality… 1994

-) Words derived from the verb “attire”: attire (noun), attired, attiring.