comforter

From Anglo-Norman confortour, from Old French conforter. See comfort.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌmfətə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌmfəɹtəɹ/

• Audio (AU)

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comforter (plural comforters)

1. A person who comforts someone who is suffering.
   • Shakespeare

     Let no comforter delight mine ear / But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.

2. (US) A padded cover for a bed, duvet, continental quilt.
3. (dated, chiefly Britain) A woollen scarf for winter.
   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, Chapter 29,

     […] round his neck he wore a flaming red worsted comforter, whereof the straggling ends peeped out beneath his threadbare Newmarket coat, which was very tight and buttoned all the way up.

   • 1881, Felix L. Oswald, “Physical Education,” Popular Science Monthly June, 1881, p. 148,

     The American schoolboy takes off his comforter and unbuttons his jacket before going in for a snowball fight.

   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Fate of the Artemis‎:

     “ […] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned, and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […] ”

4. (Britain, New Zealand, Australia) A pacifier.

• (person who comforts): consoler
• (padded bed cover): duvet, (continental) quilt

• recomfort