wardrobe
Americannoun
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a stock of clothes or costumes, as of a person or of a theatrical company.
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a piece of furniture for holding clothes, now usually a tall, upright case fitted with hooks, shelves, etc.
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a room or place in which to keep clothes or costumes.
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the department of a royal or other great household charged with the care of wearing apparel.
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a department in a motion-picture or television studio in charge of supplying and maintaining costumes.
Report to wardrobe right after lunch.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a tall closet or cupboard, with a rail or hooks on which to hang clothes
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the total collection of articles of clothing belonging to one person
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the collection of costumes belonging to a theatre or theatrical company
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of wardrobe
1250–1300; Middle English warderobe < Anglo-French. See ward (v.), robe
Explanation
All of the clothes in your closet make up your wardrobe. If you're tired of your wardrobe, it just might be time to go shopping. From the words warder, meaning “to protect”, and robe, meaning a “piece of clothing,” wardrobe originally meant an entire room where a person's clothing was stored. Nowadays, most people don’t have an entire room for their clothes, so the word wardrobe has downsized to just a large cabinet, or the clothing itself. A wardrobe can also be the costumes (or the costume department) of a theater company or movie.
Vocabulary lists containing wardrobe
The Ottoman Empire: Furniture Words
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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Academy Awards, List 5
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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:
In contrast, Wilson - often anchored by his ever-present pipe and Gannex coat - was famed for a pragmatic, utilitarian wardrobe that defined the "cloth-cap" socialism of the 1960s and 70s.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
He caught the bus home and hid in his wardrobe until his mum had gone out.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
“When I was there for my first fitting, I was talking to the wardrobe people. I said I kind of felt like furniture. And they said, ‘That’s because you haven’t read the 10th episode.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Rand dubbed Greenspan “the Undertaker” for his serious manner and dark wardrobe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Reluctantly I pulled off mine while Betsie rummaged in the wardrobe.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
The police move from room to room, by torchlight - there's no power - opening wardrobes and lifting mattresses.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Consumers are experimenting more with fragrance and want to create their own scent wardrobes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Their wardrobes are more subtle, yet show that there are different strata in the quiet luxury landscape.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
Now they are expected to change the way people dress as they lose weight, with GLP-1 users potentially spending billions more each year to refresh their wardrobes, Bernstein analysts said.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 20, 2026
“As for him, God help us if that’s all our wardrobes have to look forward to!”
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
Before taking part in the ceremony, he’s wardrobed in “traditional” attire, which the British have crafted based on Indian drawings.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2018
A woman dressed as a sailboat stood proudly on one side; several others wardrobed like giant Gerbera daisies — their lean green-suited bodies topped with giant multi-petal hats.
From Washington Post
Not that he thinks the solution lies in wardrobing.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 16, 2023
Aside from wardrobing Tom Cruise in “Vanilla Sky” as well as providing clothes for several “Mission: Impossible” and James Bond movies, Varvatos has largely stayed out of Hollywood until now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2019
Others accept behavior such as "wardrobing" — in which customers buy an item, use it and then return it — as a hazard of doing business.
From Chicago Tribune ● Feb. 2, 2014
Some of these result from a practice known as wardrobing, in which a shopper buys a garment for a particular event, then returns it once the event is over.
From New York Times ● Jul. 10, 2010
Her name recognition soared after she spent a season wardrobing contestants for the hit TV reality show Star Factory.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
