fashion
Pluralfashions (some meanings)
Verbfashions, fashioning, fashioned
Pluralfashions (some meanings)
Formsfashions, fashioning, fashioned
- 1Popular styles of clothing, and the business of designing and making clothes.
She works in fashion, designing dresses for a small studio.
High-waisted jeans came back into fashion last year.
UsageSay in fashion or out of fashion for what is popular, and work in fashion for the clothes business.
Similarstyle
Note
- 2
- 3Something that many people like or do for a time, often only for a short while.
Like a song everyone sings for a few weeks, then forgets.
Pet rocks were a silly fashion that vanished within a year.
Every season brings a new fashion that fades just as quickly.
UsageOften said as a fashion for something, like a fashion for big hats.
- 4To make something, often with your hands or from things you can find.
He fashioned a toy boat out of an old can.
We fashion small boats from folded paper.
UsageSay what it is made from or out of: fashion a boat out of a can.
Similarmake
Less common meanings
- 5The shape and make of something, and how well it is put together.
The ring was of a simple fashion, just a thin band of gold.
I admired the unusual fashion of the old carved chair.
Similarworkmanship, craftsmanship, design, form, construction
Note
- 6To change something so that it fits a need or situation.
She fashioned her old speech to suit a younger audience.
Laws ought to be fashioned unto the manners and conditions of the people.
1596, Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of IrelandeHere, fashioned means fitted or adapted to suit something.UsageUse to before what it must fit: fashion a lesson to a pupil.
Similartailor, adapt, fit, suit, adjust
Note
- 7High society and the polite, well-bred world of people with social standing.
Her family belonged to the world of fashion and fine manners.
He hoped his wealth would win him a place among people of fashion.
UsageMostly in people of fashion, meaning people in high society, not people who love clothes.
- 8To make a fake copy of something in order to trick people.
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”Here, fashion means to forge or fake something, making it falsely.Note
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
It goes back to Latin factiō ('a making'), built on faciō ('do, make'). Old French words for 'form, make, or appearance' came from it, and it reached English through Anglo-Norman and Middle English.