Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA room, enclosed area or single-purpose building containing a fixture or fixtures used for urination and defecation; a bathroom or water closet.
nounA room, enclosed area or single-purpose building containing a fixture or fixtures used for urination and defecation; a bathroom or water closet., A small secondary lavatory having a fixture used for urination and defecation and sink but no bathtub or shower.
The bathroom had a broken ____, so we could not flush properly.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The plumber came to the house early this morning to fix the leaking ____ in the upstairs bathroom today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French toilette, diminutive of toile (“cloth”), from their use to protect clothing while shaving or arranging hair. From its use as a private room, toilet came to refer euphemistically to lavatories and then to its fixtures, beginning in the United States in the late 19th century.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"He would hit her when she cried and, if this did not work, would lock her in the toilet for hours on end."
— 2002, Digby Tantam, Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice: A Narrative Framework, page 122:
"He wet his thumb with saliva pressing on the tongue, ran it up and down faster over the letter 'I' of 'TOILET', the 'LADIES TOILET' was transformed into 'LADIES TO LET' in no time."
— 2014, C.S. Walter, Abandoned Bridges, pp. 105 f.:
"Look around you. It's a toilet."
— 1982, The Mosquito Coast:
"Mr. Gaunt was urbane and smiling again, not a hair out of place. "Do you like this little town? Do you love it? […]" / […] "I hate this fucking toilet," he said to Leland Gaunt."
— 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:
"And now, unveil’d, the toilet stands display’d, / Each silver vase in mystic order laid."
— 1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, lines 121-126: