towel

From Middle English towel, towail, towaille, from Old French toaille (“towel”) (modern French touaille), from Frankish *thwahila (“cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *þwahilō (“wash-cloth”, literally “something used for washing”), from *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: touʹəl
• IPA^(key): /taʊl/, /taʊ.əl/

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• Rhymes: -aʊl, -aʊəl

towel (plural towels)

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

• lavabo
• see also Derived terms below

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. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete, transitive) To beat with a stick.

• untoweled, untowelled
• towel off
• towel up

• Towle, owlet