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Synonyms

kirtle

American  
[kur-tl] / ˈkɜr tl /

noun

  1. a woman's loose gown, worn in the Middle Ages.

  2. Obsolete. a man's tunic.


kirtle British  
/ ˈkɜːtəl /

noun

  1. a woman's skirt or dress

  2. a man's coat

"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

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of kirtle

before 900; Middle English kirtel, Old English cyrtel, apparently equivalent to cyrt ( an ) to shorten (≪ Latin curtus shortened) + -el -le

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.

Clad in a cloud-gray kirtle and a hood as blue as the sky.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

Dressed in a brown, grease-spotted kirtle, she had a lopsided white linen cap upon her dark and gray-streaked tresses.

From "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by Avi

"How much did your mother tell you to take for the goat?" asked the woman in the scarlet kirtle.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

The lady in the scarlet kirtle stood up then and placed the bowl which had contained her portion of hare into the fire.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

"I was going to be eating with fingers on a plate of fresh leaves," she said, handing a bowl to the lady in the scarlet kirtle.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

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