towel

From Middle English towayle, towel, towail, towaille, from Old French toaille (“towel”) (modern French touaille), Medieval Latin toallia, from Frankish *þwahilu (“cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *þwahaną (“to wash”). Cognate with Old High German dwahila (“towel”) (modern dialectal German Zwehle), Dutch dwaal (“towel”), dweil (“mop”), Low German Dweel (“towel”), Old English þwǣle (“band; ribbon; fillet”), Old English þwēan (“to wash”).

• enPR: toul, touʹəl
• IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊ(ə)l/
• (Philadelphia), IPA^(key): [tʰæɫ]
• (Southern American English), IPA^(key): [tʰæɒ̯ɫ], [tʰɛjɔ̯ɫ]

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -aʊl, -aʊəl

towel (plural towels)

1. A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, such as a person after a bath.

• lavabo
• see also Derived terms below

• → Japanese: タオル (taoru)
• → Swahili: taulo

towel (third-person singular simple present towels, present participle toweling or towelling, simple past and past participle toweled or towelled)

1. (transitive) To hit with a towel.
2. (transitive) To dry by using a towel.

   He got out of the shower and toweled himself dry.

3. (transitive) To block up (a door, etc.) with a towel, to conceal the fumes of a recreational drug.
   • 2012, Dave Tomar, The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat:

     We would open the windows, towel the door, and turn my bedroom into an Allman Brothers concert.

4. (UK, dialect, obsolete, transitive) To beat with a stick, or "oaken towel".[1]

• towel off
• towel up
• untoweled, untowelled

• Towle, owlet

towel

1. Alternative form of towayle