towel
Americannoun
-
towels
plural
verb (used with object)
-
towels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
toweled,
past participle, past
-
towelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
toweling,
present participle
-
towelling
present participle (especially British)
idioms
noun
-
a square or rectangular piece of absorbent cloth or paper used for drying the body
-
a similar piece of cloth used for drying plates, cutlery, etc
-
See throw in
verb
-
to dry or wipe with a towel
-
slang to assault or beat (a person)
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
towelsimple
-
towelssimple
-
have toweledperfect
-
have towelledperfect
-
has toweledperfect
-
has towelledperfect
-
am towelingprogressive
-
am towellingprogressive
-
are towelingprogressive
-
are towellingprogressive
-
is towelingprogressive
-
is towellingprogressive
-
have been towelingperfect progressive
-
have been towellingperfect progressive
-
has been towelingperfect progressive
-
has been towellingperfect progressive
Past
-
toweledsimple
-
towelledsimple
-
had toweledperfect
-
had towelledperfect
-
was towelingprogressive
-
was towellingprogressive
-
were towelingprogressive
-
were towellingprogressive
-
had been towelingperfect progressive
-
had been towellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of towel
1250–1300; Middle English (noun) < Old French toaille cloth for washing or wiping < West Germanic *thwahliō (> Old High German dwahilla, akin to dwahal bath); cognate with Gothic thwahl, thwēal washing
Explanation
When you get out of the shower, the first thing you do is grab a towel and dry off. A towel is a piece of material that's used to absorb moisture. Towels come in many sizes and styles, from enormous terrycloth beach towels to sheets of paper towel you use for wiping up kitchen spills. What they have in common is absorbency—they're made to soak up liquids. You can also use towel as a verb: "The dog is soaking wet! Towel her off before you let her on your bed!" And when you've utterly given up on something, use the boxing-related phrase "throw in the towel."
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:
Meanwhile, stock-picking fund managers are apparently throwing in the towel, because using your brains to pick good stocks at reasonable prices can’t compete with simple momentum — in other words, with just following the crowd.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Or sleep on top of a wet towel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
Its open crumb absorbs just enough sauce to become more flavorful as it sits, while the soft crust remains easy to eat on a towel without showering your lap in shards.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
When he returns from a day of walking cobblestone streets or a bike tour, he expects a warm towel and afternoon tea, not a DJ.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Max thought after everyone else left, even as he let Nurse Beverly towel his hair dry more vigorously than he’d managed to himself.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The 24-foot trailer was packed and ready: sleeping bags, towels, backpacks and other items needed for a free four-day summer camping trip for children of incarcerated parents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
The next generation of plush paper towels, toilet paper and diapers could be made with a plant with long, pointy leaves that grows in arid climates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Fiber from the plant can be used to make paper towels, toilet paper and other products that are both stronger and softer than wood-based equivalents, executives from Kimberly-Clark said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
It almost got captured several times but managed to escape the clutches of the crew members or from underneath the towels they were tossing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
In the corridor I passed a gaunt, sixtyish woman—print dress, harlequin glasses, sharp nasty face like a poodle—carrying a stack of folded towels.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Gary offered Noah his paddle eraser then toweled off the top of his bare head.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2025
When he is toweled off after a walk, Campbell puts the wet towel over the floor grill so the heat dries it.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 19, 2024
Then she sat and toweled her face and adjusted her headband as the chair umpire said, per custom after changeovers, “Time.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 7, 2022
After whisking him out of the Jogger, I carried him into the house, laid him on his big changing table, removed his drenched clothes, toweled him off, and dressed him in dry clothes.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2019
Wraithlike in a toweled robe, her hair wet from the shower.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
That meant the roof needed to come on, and the court be towelled down.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2022
She sat in the shade, her light-brown hair pulled into a tight knot and slicked dark with sweat, and towelled off her powerful arms.
From The New Yorker ● May 29, 2019
When I glanced over as we towelled off during the break, he didn’t look nearly as tired as I hoped.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 18, 2016
He towelled himself vigorously, making the muscles of his biceps ripple, then he sat down on the rocks and reached for his pipe.
From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl
He washed his hands and face and towelled himself dry, making little sound.
From "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
After a thorough rinsing and before toweling them dry, I give my scallops a milk bath, letting them soak for as long as it takes to prep my ingredients.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2024
Ruidiaz posted to his Instagram stories video of teammates toweling off.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2024
Medvedev said he felt dizzy afterward and that both he and Rublev rubbed their faces raw by toweling off so frequently.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 6, 2023
When Balogun took to Instagram to post what he thought were generic photos of him posed inside a car and sitting on the grass, toweling off after a workout, U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
But Jack, who’d also become a good friend over the course of the summer, was already out of the pool and toweling off.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
We called ourselves Les Penguins en Peignoirs because we wore white towelling bathrobes to wrap around us when we got out.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2021
A jingle of keys emerged, then some coins, and finally, a crumpled sheet of paper towelling.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 25, 2019
It is modern, covers 800 acres, employs 14,000 and produces a steady 90 tonnes of towelling a day.
From Economist ● Jul. 9, 2015
And yet I cherish my years of terrible towelling.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 2, 2015
Mack came back dabbing at his mouth with wet towelling.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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.
