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corset

[kawr-sit]
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noun
  1. Sometimes corsets. a close-fitting undergarment, stiffened with whalebone or similar material and often capable of being tightened by lacing, enclosing the trunk: worn, especially by women, to shape and support the body; stays.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to dress or furnish with or as if with a corset.
  2. to regulate strictly; constrict.
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Origin of corset

1225–75; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French, equivalent to cors bodice, body + -et -et
Related formscor·set·less, adjectiveun·cor·set·ed, adjectivewell-cor·set·ed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for corset

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Not a food, corset, or collar which has not its artist working for it!

    Another Sheaf

    John Galsworthy

  • So Lydia sank upon the zone left by the corset and stockings.

    The Prisoner

    Alice Brown

  • The waist belt enforces the evils which the corset and skirts inaugurate.

    The Arena

    Various

  • To this corset may be fixed two or three bands of silver coins.

    Children of Borneo

    Edwin Herbert Gomes

  • This is often caused by the pressure of corset and skirts upon the waist.

British Dictionary definitions for corset

corset

noun
    1. a stiffened, elasticated, or laced foundation garment, worn esp by women, that usually extends from below the chest to the hips, providing support for the spine and stomach and shaping the figure
    2. a similar garment worn because of injury, weakness, etc, by either sex
  2. informal a restriction or limitation, esp government control of bank lending
  3. a stiffened outer bodice worn by either sex, esp in the 16th century
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verb
  1. (tr) to dress or enclose in, or as in, a corset
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Word Origin

C14: from Old French, literally: a little bodice; see corselet
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for corset

n.

c.1300, "kind of laced bodice," from Old French corset (13c.) "bodice, tunic," diminutive of cors "body" (see corps). Meaning "stiff supporting and constricting undergarment" is from 1795.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper