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:
It was wrapped in a towel in a laundry basket.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
She received a code violation from the umpire and went to sit in her chair, her head covered by a towel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
About 2 cups finely shredded zucchini, loosely packed and squeezed dry with a paper towel.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
Looking back, Ffion said she would have asked him to leave, describing the towel as a "red flag from the start".
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Carter runs up with a small white towel.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
It was good to see the Rams celebrate their early L.A. history by wearing gold jerseys and by giving the SoFi fans 1951 championship towels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026
The BofA analysts noted that those same-day delivery facilities carry around 90,000 of Amazon’s frequently purchased products, like paper towels, cough medicine and fresh items.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
Now the nine of them sat on the floor in one of their two rooms, one for men and one for women, foil pans of halal food laid on towels, in eerie silence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Dart draped ice towels around her neck and used cold-air hoses at the changeovers against Bouzkova as she attempted to cool down.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
She put it in a box full of warm towels, and inside the box she placed a little saucer of banana pieces and some dead grubs Ob had dug out of the backyard for it.
From "Missing May" by Cynthia Rylant
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
Before delivering the groceries, I removed them from the plastic grocery store bags and toweled everything down with precious Clorox wipes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2020
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
Then he toweled off, dressed and went to work.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2016
She went to him, placing her damp toweled arms about his neck, sobbing into his chest, soaking his shirt.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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
He doused little body-con polo dresses in crystals and wrapped technical toweling into columns.
From New York Times ● Oct. 22, 2021
Cane chairs had been arranged in rows, drawing boards on each seat, a crate between every two chairs with a big jar of clear water and several ripped-up pieces of old toweling on top.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
"I became known for being in those meetings wearing a towelling robe."
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
It is modern, covers 800 acres, employs 14,000 and produces a steady 90 tonnes of towelling a day.
From Economist ● Jul. 9, 2015
A few minutes later he came out, dressed and towelling his hair dry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 28, 2015
His face was red where he'd been towelling it.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 19, 2014
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.
