# towel

Pronunciation: say "TOW-uhl" /ˈtaʊ(ə)l/

## Noun

1. A cloth used for wiping or for drying anything wet, such as a person after a bath.
   - Simple: A piece of cloth you use to dry wet things, like your body after a bath.
   - _He dried the dishes with a clean towel before putting them away._
   - _Fresh towels hung on the rack in the hotel bathroom._

## Verb

2. To dry someone or something by using a towel.
   - Simple: To dry a person or thing by rubbing with a towel.
   - _After the bath, he toweled the baby gently and wrapped her in a blanket._
   - _Swimmers towel themselves quickly between races to stay warm._
3. To strike someone or something with a towel.
   - Simple: To hit someone with a towel.
   - _If you towel your teammates in the locker room again, you're benched for a week._
   - _She toweled her little brother on the arm, and he ran off howling._
4. To block up a door or other opening with a towel in order to conceal the fumes of a recreational drug.
   - Simple: To block a door with a towel so the smell of drug smoke cannot get out.
   - _We toweled the door and opened a window, but the smell still drifted into the corridor._
   - _College students sometimes towel their dorm doors before smoking inside._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To thrash someone with a club or cudgel.

## Origin

It comes from Middle English towayle, from Old French toaille ("towel"), via Medieval Latin toallia, from Frankish *þwahilu ("cloth") and ultimately Proto-Germanic *þwahaną ("to wash"). It is related to Old High German dwahila ("towel"), Dutch dwaal ("towel"), and Old English þwēan ("to wash").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/towel (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).