DictionaryAI

toilet

TOY-luht/ˈtɔɪ.lət/

Pluraltoilets

Verbtoilets, toileting, toileted

12 meanings of toilet

Practice

  1. 1
    flush bowlnouncountable
    A fixture used for urination and defecation, typically a large bowl with a ring-shaped seat that uses water to flush waste into a sewer or septic system.

    The plumber installed a new toilet in the renovated bathroom.

    Every toilet in the building was replaced with a low-flush model.

    UsageCommon in flush the toilet and clean the toilet; go down the toilet means be wasted.

    Similarlavatory

    Note

    The bowl, seat and flush are the last step in the word's slide from dressing table to lavatory to fixture. In speech that calls the room a bathroom, toilet is left free for the fixture: my toilet got clogged, now the bathroom's flooded. When both share a sentence, the bathroom is the room and the toilet is what overflows.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  2. 2
    bathroomnounAustraliaHong KongUKcountable
    A room, enclosed area, or small building containing one or more toilets, often with a washbasin; a bathroom or lavatory.

    Ask the waiter where the toilet is.

    The pub's toilets were down a narrow staircase.

    Similarbathroom, restroom, lavatory, washroom

    Note

    Across Britain, Australia and Hong Kong this is the name for the room. You are in the toilet, and a door reads LADIES TOILET, a sign C.S. Walter's Abandoned Bridges (2014) turns into LADIES TO LET with one wet thumb. The word arrived here as a euphemism borrowed from the private dressing room. It then passed to the fixture, a shift that began in the United States in the late 19th century.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The novel describes someone using a saliva-wetted thumb to change LADIES TOILET into LADIES TO LET. en.wiktionary.org
    • The lavatory-room sense developed euphemistically from the private dressing-room sense. en.wikipedia.org
    • The subsequent fixture sense began in the United States in the late nineteenth century. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    use the looverbintransitive
    To urinate or defecate, especially by using a toilet fixture.

    Hospital patients who cannot toilet alone are given assistance.

    Most toddlers begin to toilet independently by age three.

    UsageMostly in childcare and nursing, often as toileting: help with toileting.

    Note

    A verb made from the noun, at home in the language of training, care and public health: teaching a child to toilet properly, or the dangers of toileting at night where latrines have no light. Its transitive partner, helping someone else use one, takes an object.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of toilet apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Middle French toilette, a diminutive of toile ("cloth"), named for the cloths used to protect clothing while shaving or arranging hair. Because it came to mean a private room, toilet was used euphemistically for lavatories and then their fixtures, beginning in the United States in the late 19th century.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  • Toilet comes from Middle French toilette, a diminutive of toile meaning cloth, associated with protecting clothing during shaving or hairdressing. en.wiktionary.org
  • The private-room sense developed euphemistically into the lavatory sense and then the fixture sense. en.wiktionary.org
  • The sanitary senses began in the United States in the late nineteenth century. en.wiktionary.org