chemise
[shuh-meez]
noun
a woman's loose-fitting, shirtlike undergarment.
(in women's fashions) a dress designed to hang straight from the shoulders and fit loosely at the waist, sometimes more tightly at the hip.
a revetment for an earth embankment.
Nearby words
- chemico-,
- chemigraphy,
- chemiluminescence,
- chemin de fer,
- chemiosmosis,
- chemisette,
- chemism,
- chemisorb,
- chemisorption,
- chemist
Origin of chemise
before 1050; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French: shirt < Late Latin camīsa linen undergarment, shirt; replacing Middle English kemes, Old English cemes < Late Latin camīsa
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for chemise
chemise
noun
Also called: shift
Word Origin for chemise
C14: from Old French: shirt, from Late Latin camisa, perhaps of Celtic origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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chemise
late Old English, cemes "shirt," from Old French chemise "shirt, undertunic, shift," or directly from Late Latin camisia "shirt, tunic" (Jerome; also source of Italian camicia, Spanish camisa); originally a soldier's word, probably via Gaulish, from Proto-Germanic *khamithjan (cf. Old Frisian hemethe, Old Saxon hemithi, Old English hemeðe, German hemd "shirt"), from PIE root *kem- "to cover, cloak" (cf. heaven). The French form took over after c.1200. Related: Chemisette.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper