Garb Meaning
/ɡɑː(ɹ)b/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounFashion, style of dressing oneself up.
nounA type of dress or clothing.
Sentence Examples
Dressed in ceremonial garb, he began the ritual.
He was dressed in a minister's garb.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The priest wore traditional religious ____ for the ceremony.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The traditional ____ worn by the villagers was both colorful and practical for their daily outdoor work.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French garbe ("graceful outline, silhouette"; > Modern French galbe), from Italian garbo (“grace, elegance”), from Germanic (compare Old High German garwi, garawi (“dress, equipment, preparation”), Middle High German gerwe (“outfitting, jewelry, clothing, robe, regalia”), modern German Gärbe, Gerbe and English gear), ultimately from Frankish *garwijan (“to prepare”), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną (“to prepare”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking.[…]Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men."
— 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel."
— 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
"Yorkshire supplied 500 bows, and 580 garbs of arrows, 360 of which had iron heads pointed with steel."
— 1957, H. R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 118:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The priest wore traditional religious ____ for the ceremony.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The traditional ____ worn by the villagers was both colorful and practical for their daily outdoor work.