robe
pronunciation
How to pronounce robe in British English: UK [rəʊb]
How to pronounce robe in American English: US [roʊb]
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- Noun:
- any loose flowing garment
- outerwear consisting of a long flowing garment used for official or ceremonial occasions
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- Verb:
- clothe formally; especially in ecclesiastical robes
Word Origin
- robe
- robe: [13] A robe is etymologically ‘something stolen’, hence a ‘looted garment’, and finally simply a ‘(long) garment’. The word comes ultimately from Vulgar Latin *rauba, which was borrowed from the same Germanic base as produced English bereave and rob. It passed into English via Old French robe. This still retained the ancestral meaning ‘stolen things, spoils’ as well as the new ‘garment’, and in that sense it has given English rubbish and rubble.=> rob
- robe (n.)
- "long, loose outer garment," late 13c., from Old French robe "long, loose outer garment" (12c.), from a Germanic source (compare Old High German rouba "vestments"), from West Germanic *raubo "booty" (cognate with Old High German roub "robbery, breakage"), which also yielded rob (v.). Presumably the notion is of garments taken from the enemy as spoils, and the Old French word had a secondary sense of "plunder, booty," while Germanic cognates had both senses; as in Old English reaf "plunder, booty, spoil; garment, armor, vestment." Meaning "dressing gown" is from 1854. Metonymic sense of "the legal profession" is attested from 1640s.
- robe (v.)
- late 14c., from robe (n.). Related: Robed; robing.
Example
- 1. This robe was made specially for the king .
- 2. One nobleman might sport a polish shield , and persian robe and use turkish horse trappings .
- 3. Mrs. weasley and ginny were going to a secondhand robe shop .
- 4. Safest : I 've always loved you in that robe !
- 5. She was dressed in a robe of white owl feathers trailing behind her in the howling wind .