toilets

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of toilet.

   The office installed new toilets in both restrooms last month.

   Several toilets on the upper floors were out of order during the renovation.

   Note

   The plural can count rooms or fixtures, depending on where you are. In British, Australian and Hong Kong usage it usually counts rooms, as in the toilets on the second floor. Everywhere it can count the fixtures themselves, as when new toilets are installed in a restroom. Figuratively it names squalid places. Older texts can surprise a reader: toilets were once the linen or silk covers spread over dressing tables, and then the tables themselves.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of toilet.

   The nurse toilets each resident on a fixed schedule throughout the shift.

   She washes, dresses, and toilets her grandmother every morning.

   Note

   Today this is mostly a caregiver's verb. A nurse toilets a patient and a parent toilets a child, with the person being helped as the object. Without an object it can simply mean using a toilet oneself. The older meaning, dressing and grooming oneself, is dated, so a sentence like she toilets before dinner reads as period style. It is spelled exactly like the plural noun, so the sentence decides which one you are reading.

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