towels

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of towel.

   The hotel left two extra towels on the bed.

   Damp towels hung from every hook in the locker room.

   Note

   A regular plural, made by adding -s with no change to the stem. The same spelling also works as a verb form, so in "she towels the dog" the word is the verb for drying or hitting, not a count of cloths. The word before it usually tells you which: a number or article points to the noun, and a subject points to the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of towel.

   After the swim, she towels the dog before it runs back inside.

   He always towels the counter dry before he starts cooking.

   Note

   Every use of the verb takes an object: someone towels a child, a counter, a doorway. Most often it means drying, but it can also mean hitting someone with a towel, or blocking a door with one so that a recreational drug's fumes stay hidden. An older sense of beating with a stick, jokingly called an "oaken towel," is now obsolete UK dialect.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2