suit

Less common meanings

8. 8
   card setnouncountable

   Each of the groups into which a pack of cards is divided, marked by color or emblem, such as spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs.

   Players must follow the led suit whenever they can.

   Diamonds and clubs are the minor suits in bridge scoring.

   UsageFollow suit means copy what someone has just done; your strong suit is what you do best.

   Note

   Card play turns on this sense: in many trick-taking games, a suit is led, and others must follow it when they can. Emblems vary by tradition; spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs are only the familiar set. Underneath is a family of cards that belong together, like the matching clothes. Cowper's The Task (1785) already speaks of "suits and sequences." Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Suit emblems differ between traditions. en.wikipedia.org
   • The Task contains the exact words 'suits and sequences'. ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
9. 9
   bossnounslangderogatorymetonymicallycountable

   A derogatory slang term for a businessperson or manager, especially a boss, named for the formal clothing they wear.

   Some suit from upstairs canceled the whole project without asking anyone.

   The workers groaned as another suit arrived to lecture them about productivity.

   UsageOften plural: the suits upstairs.

   Similarexecutive, bureaucrat

   Note

   Clothing standing in for the wearer: the boss is named by the jacket. Emily Segal's Mercury Retrograde (2020) plays on the gap: "Suits didn't wear suits any more." Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Mercury Retrograde is by Emily Segal. delugebooks.com
   • Mercury Retrograde was first published in 2020. delugebooks.com
   • The quoted words occur in Mercury Retrograde and contrast businesspeople with their clothing. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    get dressedverbintransitive

    To dress or clothe someone, now used mostly in suit up, to put on the clothing or gear needed for an activity.

    Soldiers suit up well before the operation begins.

    She was suited entirely in white for the procession.

    UsageMostly suited in a color, or suit up for a task.

    Similardress, clothe

    Note

    Shakespeare's Twelfth Night has "So went he suited to his watery tomb," where Viola pictures her brother, whom she wrongly thinks drowned, going dressed to his grave. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Shakespeare's Twelfth Night contains the quoted line; Viola speaks it in Act 5, scene 1. folger.edu
11. 11
    courtshipnouncountable

    The pursuit of a romantic interest; the act of wooing or courting someone.

    For months he pressed his suit, sending letters and flowers.

    She rejected every suit but the one from her childhood friend.

    UsageUsually press one's suit.

    Similarcourtship, proposal

    Note

    Courtship imagined as a campaign, with rivals. In Alexander Pope's translation of the Odyssey (1725–1726), the wooers are told to let "each rival suit suspend" until the funeral web is woven. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The passage belongs to the Odyssey translation conventionally known as Pope's, produced with collaborators. en.wikipedia.org
    • The translation was first published in 1725–1726. library.manchester.ac.uk
    • The quotation is exact, and the wooers are asked to suspend their courtship until the funeral weaving is finished. en.wikisource.org
12. 12
    pleanouncountable

    A petition, request, or earnest entreaty made to someone, especially a person in authority.

    The ambassador's suit for peace was heard at court.

    He pressed his suit with the duke, begging for mercy.

    UsageA suit to someone who can grant it; often press one's suit.

    Similarpetition, plea, appeal, entreaty, request

    Note

    The sense of asking, alive in Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (1590), where a king asks, "have you any suit to me?" In older writing, read the word as a petition before assuming the courting meaning. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Christopher Marlowe wrote Tamburlaine the Great. gutenberg.org
    • A king asks the quoted question; the speaker is Mycetes, king of Persia, addressing Tamburlaine. emed.folger.edu
13. 13
    matching setnounarchaic

    A group of similar or related items considered together as a whole, such as a connected set of rooms.

    "You must wear these to-day, my dear child," said Lord Norbourne, as, entering the dressing-room of his daughter, he laid a suit of pearls on her table

    1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill

    Note

    A set treated as one thing, whether a suit of pearls or a suit of rooms. Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Ethel Churchill (1837) has a father lay "a suit of pearls" on his daughter's table. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Letitia Elizabeth Landon wrote Ethel Churchill. en.wikipedia.org
    • Ethel Churchill was first published in 1837. en.wikisource.org
    • The novel describes a father laying pearls on his daughter's table, using the exact phrase "a suit of pearls". en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    nounIndiaPakistancountable

    A woman's matching outfit, typically a shalwar kameez: a long tunic worn with loose trousers and often a scarf.

    Her aunt in Lahore sent her a hand-embroidered suit, with a long kameez, loose shalwar, and a chiffon dupatta to match.

    She picked out a green suit with gold embroidery on the kameez for the wedding.

    Similardress, outfit

    Note

    A South Asian usage, common in Pakistani and Indian English and chiefly about women's clothes, in which suit simply means this kind of dress. A reader who meets a new suit for the wedding in South Asian English should picture a dress, not a jacket and trousers. Most other speakers will assume the tailored meaning, so the context of the speaker matters here.

15. 15
    followersnounarchaic

    A company of attendants or followers accompanying an important person; a retinue.

    Note

    Here the Latin root shows through most plainly: sequi, "to follow", and a retinue is simply those who follow. The sense is archaic, and its work has passed to the doublet suite, so a modern writer would speak of the ambassador's suite. Using suit this way today reads as deliberate period color, and outside historical writing it is easily mistaken for the matching jacket and trousers. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Suit ultimately derives from Latin sequi. en.wiktionary.org
    • Latin sequi means 'to follow'. en.wiktionary.org
    • A retinue consists of attendants accompanying an important person. en.wiktionary.org
    • Suite is a doublet of suit and means a retinue. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    pursuit of aimnounobsolete

    The act of suing; the sustained pursuit of a particular aim, object, or favor.

    Thenceforth the suitt of earthly conquest shonne.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

    Note

    Suing in its general sense, far broader than the courtroom one. Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) counsels turning from "the suitt of earthly conquest." It is obsolete, and it sits between the literal chase and the lawsuit. In modern prose, pursuit says what it once said. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Suit had the general meaning of pursuing an object or goal. en.wiktionary.org
    • Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene. en.wikisource.org
    • The first publication containing the quoted passage was in 1590. en.wikisource.org
    • The poem counsels abandoning 'the suitt of earthly conquest', with that exact wording. en.wikisource.org
17. 17
    chasenounobsolete

    The act of following or pursuing; a chase after a fleeing person or animal.

    Note

    Pursuit in the most literal sense, and the meaning nearest the Latin "to follow" behind the clothing sense. It is obsolete. In modern writing, pursuit or chase does this work, and this use of suit belongs only to older texts. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Suit has a historical sense meaning literal pursuit or chase. en.wiktionary.org
    • The clothing word suit ultimately derives from a Latin verb meaning to follow, closely matching the pursuit sense. en.wikipedia.org
18. 18
    nounobsolete

    A regular order or succession, in which one thing follows another in turn.

    Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again.

    Note

    Order as a sequence, not a set: one kind of weather following another and coming round again. It is obsolete. In older prose it can look like the "related set" meaning. To tell them apart, ask whether the things arrive one after another or simply belong together. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Suit historically meant a regular order or succession, distinct from a related set. en.wiktionary.org
    • The succession sense is attested in a description of recurring weather. en.wiktionary.org
    • The related-set sense concerns things belonging together as a whole. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    noun

    The complete set of sails required to rig and work a ship.