apparel
Americannoun
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clothing, especially outerwear; garments; attire; raiment.
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anything that decorates or covers.
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superficial appearance; aspect; guise.
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Nautical. the masts, sails, anchor, etc., used to equip a vessel.
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Ecclesiastical. a piece of embroidery, usually oblong, on certain vestments, especially on the alb or amice.
verb (used with object)
noun
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something that covers or adorns, esp outer garments or clothing
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nautical a vessel's gear and equipment
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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apparelsimple
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apparelssimple
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have appareledperfect
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have apparelledperfect
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has appareledperfect
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has apparelledperfect
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am apparelingprogressive
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am apparellingprogressive
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are apparelingprogressive
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are apparellingprogressive
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is apparelingprogressive
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is apparellingprogressive
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have been apparelingperfect progressive
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have been apparellingperfect progressive
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has been apparelingperfect progressive
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has been apparellingperfect progressive
Past
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appareledsimple
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apparelledsimple
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had appareledperfect
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had apparelledperfect
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was apparelingprogressive
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was apparellingprogressive
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were apparelingprogressive
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were apparellingprogressive
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had been apparelingperfect progressive
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had been apparellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of apparel
1200–50; Middle English appareillen < Old French apareillier to make fit, fit out < Vulgar Latin *appariculāre, equivalent to ap- ap- 1 + *paricul ( us ) a fit ( see par 1 -cule 1) + -ā- thematic vowel + -re infinitive suffix
Explanation
Apparel is just another word for what you wear. Hopefully the apparel you wear to work — suits and heels — is very different from the apparel you wear on the weekends — pajama pants and bunny slippers. The noun apparel got its start from the Latin apparare, meaning to “prepare, make ready,” or ad-particulare, meaning “to put things together.” In the mid 13th century it evolved into a verb meaning “to equip.” It wasn’t until the next century that people began to use apparel as both a verb meaning “to attire” and as a noun meaning garments or clothing. Said 17th century British writer Thomas Fuller, “…Apparel shapes: but it's money that finishes the man.”
Vocabulary lists containing apparel
Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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Words for Carolers
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Let's Go Caroling, List 1
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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:
He said tennis shoes and apparel were also either sold out or in short supply, and some stores had jacked up racket prices.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
“Health is kind of the new wealth in China,” said one athletic apparel executive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Already among the longest-running partnerships in college sports, the extension of the all-sports apparel deal runs through 2036, the school announced Tuesday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
A new wave of high-tech apparel aims to help them stay cooler and more comfortable through the heat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Meanwhile the girl fetched all her soiled apparel to bundle in the polished wagon box.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
It is also adding to fears among labour rights campaigners that Covid-19 is providing cover for an industry-wide suppression of workers’ voices across the apparels industry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2020
The Clean Clothes Campaign said it was braced for further cases of union suppression across the apparels industry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2020
India unit and Mandhana Industries Ltd., an Indian maker of apparels with 5,000 employees in Mumbai and Bangalore, will give workers the option of taking the afternoon off.
From BusinessWeek ● Mar. 30, 2011
The Alb is often trimmed handsomely with lace, the apparels are stitched on to the front.
From Chats on Old Lace and Needlework by Lowes, Emily Leigh
Where joy and delight and beauty were, there he knew by sure signs were the parts of the mystery, the glorious apparels of the heavenly vestments.
From The Secret Glory by Machen, Arthur
In contrast to the usual portrayals, Barbara Flynn’s matronly Mary is as confident and imperious as her cousin, if not nearly as well appareled.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2018
First of all was Columbus, richly appareled, with the banner of Spain in his hand.
From A Treasury of Heroes and Heroines A Record of High Endeavour and Strange Adventure from 500 B.C. to 1920 A.D. by Edwards, Clayton
He received a large sum to defray his expenses; and when he appeared at court, on December 17th, he was no longer in irons and disgrace, but richly appareled and surrounded with friends.
From Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia being a concordance of choice tributes to the great Genoese, his grand discovery, and his greatness of mind and purpose by Dickey, J. M. (John Marcus)
Behold, they who are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings' palaces. 26But what went ye out to see?
From The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The common English version, corrected by the final committee of the American Bible Union. by American Bible Union
But so great was the sympathy between the gallants and the ladies, that every day they were appareled in the same livery.
From The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VII (of X)—Continental Europe I by Lodge, Henry Cabot
As a child, his world had been "apparelled in celestial light," but no longer.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2021
The veteran Robert Warwick is properly apparelled and deep-voiced as Chandler.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the middle of it there was a green silk canopy borne on four spears by four knights gorgeously apparelled.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
At one of the stations between Lichfield and London, we encounter a group whose chief figure is that of a pretty little lady, blithe as a golden butterfly, apparelled for the chase.
From From the Oak to the Olive A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Howe, Julia Ward
All these archers were of the King's guard and had thus apparelled themselves to make solace to the King.
From England by Fox, Frank, Sir
Wordsworth idealized newborns, who he said entered life “trailing clouds of glory” and appareling all they saw in “celestial light.”
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2013
Pale and hard the face rose from this somber and gorgeous appareling.
From The Secret of Lonesome Cove by Adams, Samuel Hopkins
The day came at last, and at ten Mrs. Dillingham entered the grand drawing-room in her queenly appareling.
From Sevenoaks by Holland, J. G. (Josiah Gilbert)
For as Apollo each eve doth devise A new appareling for western skies; So every eve, nay every spendthrift hour Shed balmy consciousness within that bower.
From Endymion A Poetic Romance by Keats, John
They were always apparelling themselves in gaudy dresses from Paris, and going away to balls, leaving their meritorious little sister weeping at home in their every-day finery.
From Cobwebs from an Empty Skull by Bierce, Ambrose
The kind doctor was still by during the apparelling, or the attempt at it.
From Rattlin the Reefer by Marryat, Frederick
Jeannie's maid must have been a first-rate hand at throwing, if by that simple process she produced in a quarter of an hour that exquisite and finished piece of apparelling which appeared at half-past eight.
From Daisy's Aunt by Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
But Wat, dear Wat, will you not put off your gay apparelling and take a night at the cartes with us at home.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
Elsie went out to buy a gift for Jacqueline, a bit of fine apparelling which she had coveted from the moment she knew Jacqueline should be a bride.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 35, September, 1860 by Various
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.
