blouse
Americannoun
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blouses
plural
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a usually lightweight, loose-fitting garment for women and children, covering the body from the neck or shoulders more or less to the waistline, with or without a collar and sleeves, worn inside or outside a skirt, slacks, etc.
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a single-breasted, semifitted military jacket.
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a loose outer garment, reaching to the hip or thigh, or below the knee, and sometimes belted.
verb (used without object)
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blouses,
present (3rd person singular)
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bloused,
past participle, past
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blousing
present participle
verb (used with object)
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blouses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bloused,
past participle, past
-
blousing
present participle
noun
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a woman's shirtlike garment made of cotton, nylon, etc
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a loose-fitting smocklike garment, often knee length and belted, worn esp by E European peasants
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a loose-fitting waist-length belted jacket worn by soldiers
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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blousesimple
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blousessimple
-
have blousedperfect
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has blousedperfect
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am blousingprogressive
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are blousingprogressive
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is blousingprogressive
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have been blousingperfect progressive
-
has been blousingperfect progressive
Past
-
blousedsimple
-
had blousedperfect
-
was blousingprogressive
-
were blousingprogressive
-
had been blousingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blouse
1820–30; < French, perhaps from the phrase *vêtement de laine blouse garment of short (i.e., uncarded, pure) wool; compare Provençal ( lano ) blouso pure (wool) < Old High German blōz naked, cognate with Old English bleat poor, miserable
Explanation
A blouse is a shirt usually worn by a woman. Your grandmother's favorite silk blouse might have pearl buttons down the front. A dressy item of clothing worn on the top of the body, mainly by girls or women, is sometimes called a blouse. Some military and historical garments are also blouses, and you can use the word as a verb meaning "to puff out or hang in folds," the way many blouses do. In French the word means "workman or peasant's shirt," but beyond that its origin is mysterious.
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:
The minute you glance at a blazer, blouse or sweatshirt, a saleswoman is at your elbow, asking if she can find your size or suggest a pair of pants to match.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Jordana Nye accompanied them to the stage, wearing an ocean blue blouse and purple skirt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
In “Self-Portrait With Necklace,” a string of blue jadestones rests on Kahlo’s bare neck, above the fringes of a lace blouse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
The following year, Ju Ae wore a partially see-through blouse - revealing her arms - to the completion ceremony for a residential area of the capital, Pyongyang.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
Like the skirt, the blouse I’d taken was several sizes too big, but at least both things were clean and neither was torn or stained.
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
The company has tried to offer more products beyond jeans — such as dresses, blouses and other items geared toward women — as well as modern riffs on old favorites like 501s.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
She recommends looking at the age and material of your shirts, blouses and T-shirts before deciding how to store them.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Their 1998 “Stromboli” collection revolved around a Christian theme, a Marian procession, and dresses, tunics and blouses featuring Marian imagery.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
Blue Tab, launched in Asia earlier this year before an April release in the U.S., brings Japanese-inspired denim jackets and pants, as well as T-shirts and blouses, under Levi’s own brand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
I took inner and outer deerskin pants, two sealskin blouses, a pair of mukluks and a pair of softer boots to wear under them, a pair of gloves and a pair of mittens.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
The men are variously clothed in bloused tops and tights.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Where the small was just that in the chest, and ever so slightly too short in the arms, the medium bloused out a bit at the waist.
From Slate ● Nov. 24, 2015
Polo ponies, 115, led by bright-turbaned Indians and blue bloused U. S. grooms, wound slowly around the field.
From Time Magazine Archive
He would see, not tuxedos and silk hats, but bloused men and girls in coarse sleeveless gowns.
From Time Magazine Archive
His trousers settled well on his hips and his white shirt bloused over his belt.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Failing to master synchronized heel pivots of marching drills or proper blousing of his pants, he received the most chits of any of his classmates and was punished repeatedly.
From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2018
Her eyes had something of their old-time sparkle as she reached inside the blousing front of her flannel shirt and laid in Mrs. Toomey’s hand a packet of crisp banknotes secured by bands of elastic.
From The Fighting Shepherdess by Caroline Lockhart
And at the time when the front of every woman's waist fell far below her belt in a copiously blousing sag, Mrs. Marshall's trim tautness had in it something horrifying.
From The Bent Twig by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
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.
