carpet
Americannoun
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carpets
plural
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a heavy fabric, commonly of wool or nylon, for covering floors.
-
a covering of this material.
-
any relatively soft surface or covering like a carpet.
They walked on the carpet of grass.
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any of a number of airborne electronic devices for jamming radar.
-
a system of such devices.
verb (used with object)
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carpets,
present (3rd person singular)
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carpeted,
past participle, past
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carpeting
present participle
-
to cover or furnish with or as with a carpet.
-
Chiefly British. to reprimand.
idioms
noun
-
-
a heavy fabric for covering floors
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( as modifier )
a carpet sale
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-
a covering like a carpet
a carpet of leaves
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informal
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before authority to be reproved for misconduct or error
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under consideration
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verb
-
to cover with or as if with a carpet
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informal to reprimand
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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recarpetverb (used with object)
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carpetlessadjective
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carpetlikeadjective
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uncarpetedadjective
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well-carpetedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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carpetsimple
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carpetssimple
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have carpetedperfect
-
has carpetedperfect
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am carpetingprogressive
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are carpetingprogressive
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is carpetingprogressive
-
have been carpetingperfect progressive
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has been carpetingperfect progressive
Past
-
carpetedsimple
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had carpetedperfect
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was carpetingprogressive
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were carpetingprogressive
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had been carpetingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of carpet
1300–50; Middle English carpete cloth covering for a table, floor, bed, etc. < Middle French carpite or Medieval Latin carpīta < Italian carpita woolen bedspread < Vulgar Latin *carpīta, past participle of carpīre, for Latin carpere to pluck, card (wool)
Explanation
A carpet is a thick, woven floor covering. Most carpets cover the whole floor in a room, as opposed to a rug, which only covers a small section. Carpets are made from polyester fibers, or wool, or nylon — most often, these soft materials are loops or strings that form the carpet's "pile," and are attached to a solid backing. A carpet can be very densely woven and flat, or it can be tufted and thick. To carpet means to cover something as if with a carpet: "Then the snow carpets the ground, and winter is here."
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:
Not long ago, politicians on both sides of the aisle were eagerly rolling out the red carpet for AI data centers, promising tech-driven economic booms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Excellent, if your tastes trend toward carpet tiles, hospital lighting, and the trapped-animal sensation of entering a room with no exit.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
“They can kind of go out and carpet bomb and know that they might not be as efficient, but they’re gonna hit the mark. We don’t have that luxury.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Who came up with the idea of using your red carpet appearances to send up celebrity culture?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
His shoes dug a path into the cheap Fox Run carpet.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
She panics on red carpets and says interviews make her nervous, although she certainly doesn’t seem it today.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Hollywood power couple Tom Holland and Zendaya have been dominating red carpets all summer.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
The Backrooms began with a single unsettling image posted anonymously online: a claustrophobic warren of tawdrily yellow, windowless rooms with aged carpets and harsh overhead fluorescent lights.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
And on red carpets and film festivals, you can find movie and industry leaders feeding their four favorite films into a microphone emblazoned with Letterboxd’s orange, green and blue dot logo.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026
He looked like a prince from a fairy tale, and Ophie noticed that he did not wear the house shoes like she and her mother did, instead tracking dirty snow slush across the carpets.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
Swaths of the region are carpeted in grasses that each year grow and then die, creating what Acuña described as a patchwork of layers.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
That the world is made of green fields carpeted with sweet grass, where nothing bad ever happens.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
Trump shared photos of the suspected shooter, shirtless and in handcuffs facedown on a carpeted floor, in what appears to be the Hilton lobby.
From Barron's ● Apr. 26, 2026
At the latter, now called the Kariye Mosque, Muslim worshipers kneeling on the carpeted floor and praying toward Mecca are flanked by 14th-century mosaics of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 1, 2025
My bare feet dragged along the carpeted hall.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
“Additional updates throughout the home include refinished hardwood floors, fresh interior paint, new carpeting, and a remodeled guest bathroom,” the description notes.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
Its bright orange shade looked almost neon against the phantasmagoric roses bursting from the carpeting and wallpaper—every inch of this underworld custom-calibrated for a blindingly colorful ride.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
Working together, the couple removed the shag carpeting and wood paneling from the first floor and the stairway, installing drywall in their place.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
As a child in the late 1970s and early ’80s, I fondly recall grand movie houses with chandeliers, carpeting and upholstered seats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025
Lupita called out again and walked over the shaggy royal-blue carpeting to open the bathroom door.
From "Lupita Mañana" by Patricia Beatty
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.
