Geneva gown

American  

noun

1. a loose, large-sleeved, black preaching gown worn by members of the Protestant clergy: so named from its use by the Calvinist clergy of Geneva, Switzerland.

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Geneva gown British  

noun

1. a long loose black gown with very wide sleeves worn by academics or Protestant clerics

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Etymology

Origin of Geneva gown

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Geneva gown

When I came out of chapel next morning, I found Hofman on the terrace waiting for me, and with him Master Dietz wearing his Geneva gown and a sour face.

From My Lady Rotha A Romance by Stanley J. Weyman

If the surplice was generally worn during the service, the preacher often mounted the pulpit in a Geneva gown.

From History of the English People, Volume V Puritan England, 1603-1660 by John Richard Green

Frank asked if it were really so, and Mr. Bindon made the well-known explanation that the Geneva gown was neither more nor less than the monk’s frock.

From The Three Brides by Charlotte Mary Yonge

From the fast-gathering mists that now threaten those receding years, surviving ones still rescue images of the precentor's ruffled locks, swept by the pentecostal swirl—so seemed it to his worshippers—of Dr. Grant's Geneva gown.

From St. Cuthbert's by Robert E. Knowles

A pastor in Geneva gown and bands stood at a table head, upon which a few great folios had been heaped to form a rude pulpit.

From The White Plumes of Navarre A Romance of the Wars of Religion by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett