blouse
Americannoun
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a usually lightweight, loose-fitting garment for women and children, covering the body from the neck or shoulders more or less to the waistline, with or without a collar and sleeves, worn inside or outside a skirt, slacks, etc.
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a single-breasted, semifitted military jacket.
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a loose outer garment, reaching to the hip or thigh, or below the knee, and sometimes belted.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
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a woman's shirtlike garment made of cotton, nylon, etc
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a loose-fitting smocklike garment, often knee length and belted, worn esp by E European peasants
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a loose-fitting waist-length belted jacket worn by soldiers
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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blousesimple
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blousessimple
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have blousedperfect
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has blousedperfect
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am blousingprogressive
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are blousingprogressive
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is blousingprogressive
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have been blousingperfect progressive
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has been blousingperfect progressive
Past
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blousedsimple
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had blousedperfect
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was blousingprogressive
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were blousingprogressive
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had been blousingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blouse
1820–30; < French, perhaps from the phrase *vêtement de laine blouse garment of short (i.e., uncarded, pure) wool; compare Provençal ( lano ) blouso pure (wool) < Old High German blōz naked, cognate with Old English bleat poor, miserable
Explanation
A blouse is a shirt usually worn by a woman. Your grandmother's favorite silk blouse might have pearl buttons down the front. A dressy item of clothing worn on the top of the body, mainly by girls or women, is sometimes called a blouse. Some military and historical garments are also blouses, and you can use the word as a verb meaning "to puff out or hang in folds," the way many blouses do. In French the word means "workman or peasant's shirt," but beyond that its origin is mysterious.
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.
Once the sari and the matching blue blouse reached the museum, textiles conservator Beth Knight watched YouTube videos to learn how to drape it on the mannequin.
From BBC • Jun. 5, 2026
In college, I found a treadle machine in an empty dorm room, oiled it and made a blouse and quilt.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026
She’s by his side clasping her hands, wearing a colorful blouse that pales in radiance to Huerta’s hopeful face as she looks at the crowd before them.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026
As police searched for the Tesla, they relayed details over the radio: The suspect’s hair was in braids; she wore a cream-colored blouse; her car was dirty on the bottom.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 8, 2026
But I’m still—still—in the wrinkled yellow blouse from yesterday, and I can’t possibly wear it to another shift.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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.
