apparel
Americannoun
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clothing, especially outerwear; garments; attire; raiment.
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anything that decorates or covers.
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superficial appearance; aspect; guise.
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Nautical. the masts, sails, anchor, etc., used to equip a vessel.
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Ecclesiastical. a piece of embroidery, usually oblong, on certain vestments, especially on the alb or amice.
verb (used with object)
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apparels,
present (3rd person singular)
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appareled,
past participle, past
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apparelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
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appareling,
present participle
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apparelling
present participle (especially British)
noun
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something that covers or adorns, esp outer garments or clothing
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nautical a vessel's gear and equipment
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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apparelsimple
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apparelssimple
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have appareledperfect
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have apparelledperfect
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has appareledperfect
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has apparelledperfect
-
am apparelingprogressive
-
am apparellingprogressive
-
are apparelingprogressive
-
are apparellingprogressive
-
is apparelingprogressive
-
is apparellingprogressive
-
have been apparelingperfect progressive
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have been apparellingperfect progressive
-
has been apparelingperfect progressive
-
has been apparellingperfect progressive
Past
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appareledsimple
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apparelledsimple
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had appareledperfect
-
had apparelledperfect
-
was apparelingprogressive
-
was apparellingprogressive
-
were apparelingprogressive
-
were apparellingprogressive
-
had been apparelingperfect progressive
-
had been apparellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of apparel
1200–50; Middle English appareillen < Old French apareillier to make fit, fit out < Vulgar Latin *appariculāre, equivalent to ap- ap- 1 + *paricul ( us ) a fit ( see par 1 -cule 1) + -ā- thematic vowel + -re infinitive suffix
Explanation
Apparel is just another word for what you wear. Hopefully the apparel you wear to work — suits and heels — is very different from the apparel you wear on the weekends — pajama pants and bunny slippers. The noun apparel got its start from the Latin apparare, meaning to “prepare, make ready,” or ad-particulare, meaning “to put things together.” In the mid 13th century it evolved into a verb meaning “to equip.” It wasn’t until the next century that people began to use apparel as both a verb meaning “to attire” and as a noun meaning garments or clothing. Said 17th century British writer Thomas Fuller, “…Apparel shapes: but it's money that finishes the man.”
Vocabulary lists containing apparel
Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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Words for Carolers
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Let's Go Caroling, List 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"We got stuck with basic products," he said, adding that Bangladesh had not fully tapped opportunities in military uniforms and medical apparel.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
While US tariffs are similar for apparel exporters across Asia, analysts say Bangladesh faces a greater challenge in Europe, its largest market, where India and Vietnam have gained ground through free-trade agreements.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
“They were a sustainable apparel brand that wasn’t a potato sack,” Ramirez said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Retailers are investing in ‘preloved’ apparel drops, partly to offset the environmental cost of churning out a seemingly endless array of styles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
On the Red Lake Ojibwe rez, almost everyone at the high school dresses in Nike or Reebok sports apparel.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The Clean Clothes Campaign said it was braced for further cases of union suppression across the apparels industry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2020
It is also adding to fears among labour rights campaigners that Covid-19 is providing cover for an industry-wide suppression of workers’ voices across the apparels industry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2020
India unit and Mandhana Industries Ltd., an Indian maker of apparels with 5,000 employees in Mumbai and Bangalore, will give workers the option of taking the afternoon off.
From BusinessWeek ● Mar. 30, 2011
"All thinges perteyninge to the same" here includes the vestments for the assistants, and the stoles, maniples, and apparels.
From Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral Formerly the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour, Otherwise St. Mary Overie. A Short History and Description of the Fabric, with Some Account of the College and the See by Worley, George
There is continual mention in the records of those times of offerings of embroideries and other Church apparels.
From Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess
In contrast to the usual portrayals, Barbara Flynn’s matronly Mary is as confident and imperious as her cousin, if not nearly as well appareled.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2018
They were met by a band of haggard men and women, meanly appareled, and in some cases little better than half-naked.
From Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast by Drake, Samuel Adams
Behold, they who are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings' palaces. 26But what went ye out to see?
From The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The common English version, corrected by the final committee of the American Bible Union. by American Bible Union
He moved through slow aimless eddies of brightly appareled citizens, avoiding other pedestrians, skaters and the heavy, four-wheeled autoscooters.
From DP by Savage, Arthur Dekker
Then by that happy, blissful day, More peaceful pilgrims I shall see, That have cast off their rags of clay, And walk appareled fresh like me.
From Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul by Mudge, James
As a child, his world had been "apparelled in celestial light," but no longer.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2021
The veteran Robert Warwick is properly apparelled and deep-voiced as Chandler.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the middle of it there was a green silk canopy borne on four spears by four knights gorgeously apparelled.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
It has been described as a "noble bird, gorgeously apparelled."
From An Australian Bird Book A Pocket Book for Field Use by Leach, John Albert
After a magnificent banquet in the common council chamber, above the assize court, a princely masque of gods and goddesses, richly apparelled, was presented before her majesty.
From Rambles in an Old City comprising antiquarian, historical, biographical and political associations by Madders, S. S.
Wordsworth idealized newborns, who he said entered life “trailing clouds of glory” and appareling all they saw in “celestial light.”
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2013
Pale and hard the face rose from this somber and gorgeous appareling.
From The Secret of Lonesome Cove by Adams, Samuel Hopkins
For as Apollo each eve doth devise A new appareling for western skies; So every eve, nay every spendthrift hour Shed balmy consciousness within that bower.
From Endymion A Poetic Romance by Keats, John
The day came at last, and at ten Mrs. Dillingham entered the grand drawing-room in her queenly appareling.
From Sevenoaks by Holland, J. G. (Josiah Gilbert)
Elsie went out to buy a gift for Jacqueline, a bit of fine apparelling which she had coveted from the moment she knew Jacqueline should be a bride.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 35, September, 1860 by Various
The kind doctor was still by during the apparelling, or the attempt at it.
From Rattlin the Reefer by Marryat, Frederick
But Wat, dear Wat, will you not put off your gay apparelling and take a night at the cartes with us at home.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
Then, having finished apparelling us and still chuckling, the two touched our arms and led us out, into a room whose circular sides were ringed with soft divans.
From The Moon Pool by Merritt, Abraham
"It is time that I were attending to my own apparelling, which, in looking at thee, I quite forgot," said the widow, rising, and leaving the apartment.
From The Knight of the Golden Melice A Historical Romance by Adams, John Turvill
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
