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:
About 2 cups finely shredded zucchini, loosely packed and squeezed dry with a paper towel.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
Hrgovic continued to press and when Itauma slumped into his corner, exhausted and barely able to defend himself, referee Howard Foster waved off the contest as the towel came in.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Skubal controlled his expression and wiped his face with the towel draped over his neck.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
You can then progress to standing on a folded towel or foam pad.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
She’s in sweatpants, and her hair is up in a towel.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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
Then came paper towels, Method cleaner, dish soap, lime sparkling water and grapefruit-scented antibacterial wipes.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
Nate Oester and Anna Li, from Port Townsend, Wash., were browsing a stand selling dish towels and tableware in London’s Borough Market at lunchtime on a recent afternoon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
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
I look at my chalky face under my ridiculously crooked bangs in the mirror, then grab a handful of paper towels, soak them in water, and begin to scrub.
From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish
Gary offered Noah his paddle eraser then toweled off the top of his bare head.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2025
He regularly toweled off his clubs, wiped down his shoes before putting and took on and off his black sleeveless vest.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 18, 2022
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
“I can’t wait to get back and start a big bonfire,” he said as they toweled off.
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
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 washed his hands and face and towelled himself dry, making little sound.
From "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
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
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
Far from haggling, the man who sold me a towelling gown patiently explained that his prices were fixed, and that even this robe, the biggest in his shop, would not be sufficient to cover me.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 2, 2018
He shuffled around their flat on Paris’s chic Boulevard Saint-Germain in his black towelling dressing gown, seeming unusually gloomy as he dunked his buttered toast into milky coffee.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 19, 2016
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
“But I am not a fortune-teller,” he said, letting his head drop into a festoon of towel, and towelling away at his two ears.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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.
