fashion

FASH-uhn/ˈfæʃən/

Pluralfashions (some meanings)

Verbfashions, fashioning, fashioned

8 meanings of fashion

Practice

1
clothing trendsnoununcountable
Popular trends in clothing, and the industry that designs garments and sometimes other related items.
After graduating, he moved to Milan to build a career in fashion.
Bright colors are in fashion again this spring.
UsageSet phrases: in fashion, out of fashion, back in fashion; someone works in fashion (no article).
Similarstyle
Note
The phrase in fashion is old: John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) speaks of "the innocent diversions in fashion," and Herbert Spencer could treat fashion as a form of social regulation.
2
mannernouncountable
A particular way or manner in which something is carried out.
She arranged the files in a methodical fashion before the audit.
The negotiations proceeded in a friendly, cooperative fashion.
UsageUsually in a calm fashion or in calm fashion; also after the fashion of something (in its manner).
Similarmanner, way, method, mode
Note
Hamlet plays on the frame: Ophelia says she was wooed "in honourable fashion," and Polonius sneers "Ay, fashion you may call it," turning manner into a mere passing fad.
3
passing crazenouncountable
A style, custom, or activity that is popular for a time, often only briefly.
Collecting novelty erasers became a brief fashion among the schoolchildren.
Slang words rise and fall as each new fashion sweeps through teenage speech.
UsageOften a fashion for something: a fashion for big hats.
Similarfad, craze, trend, rage, vogue
4
createverbtransitive
To make, shape, or build something, often by hand or from whatever materials are at hand.
She fashioned a fishing rod from a stick and some string.
Stranded hikers often fashion shelters out of branches and leaves.
UsageUsually with from or out of the material, or into the result: fashioned a cup from clay.
Similarmake

Less common meanings

5
how it's madenouncountable or uncountable
The make or form of a thing: its shape, appearance, structure, and the quality of its workmanship.
The cathedral's windows are remarkable for the delicate fashion of their stonework.
Experts dated the sword by its fashion: the shape of the hilt and the way the blade had been forged pointed to a Spanish workshop.
Similarworkmanship, craftsmanship, design, form, construction
Note
Here the word means a thing's make or cut. The King James Bible of 1611 says "the fashion of his countenance was altered," and King Lear has "I do not like the fashion of your garments," meaning the cut of the clothes, not their trendiness.
6
adaptverbdatedtransitive
To fit, adapt, or accommodate something to a particular purpose or situation.
She fashioned her speech to the temper of the waiting crowd.
Laws ought to be fashioned unto the manners and conditions of the people.
1596, Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande
UsageTakes to before what it is made to suit: fashion a speech to the crowd.
Similartailor, adapt, fit, suit, adjust
Note
In Edmund Spenser's dialogue A View of the Present State of Ireland, Irenius argues that "laws ought to be fashioned unto the manners and conditions of the people."
7
high societynoundateduncountable
Genteel, fashionable society; high social position and the good breeding associated with it.
She had long moved in circles of fashion, dining with lords and ladies.
In the novel, a banker's daughter comes to the city hoping to be received by people of fashion, whose drawing rooms stay closed to new money.
UsageMostly in of fashion: people of fashion were high society, not followers of clothes.
Similarsociety, gentility
8
verbobsolete
To forge, counterfeit, or falsely contrive something.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit; All with me's meet that I can fashion feet.
c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”
Note
A lost meaning that survives only in old texts: to fashion something false. In King Lear a schemer who means to win lands "if not by birth" then "by wit" counts as fit anything he can fashion to serve his ends, and in the same scene he passes off a forged letter as his brother's, so the shaping is fabrication rather than honest craft.

Practice

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Origin

Latin factiō ('a making'), from faciō ('do, make'), is the source; it gave Old French façon ('fashion, form, make, outward appearance'), whose Anglo-Norman variant fechoun became Middle English facioun. The word is therefore a doublet of faction.