Other forms: bodices
A bodice is the upper part of a woman's dress. A tight bodice, the bodice of the gown, a boned bodice.
It is the fitted part above the waist, and it is where the shaping and the boning are, which is why altering one is skilled work. The word is a spelling of bodies: the garment was made in two halves laced together and was called a pair of bodies.
1nounbodiceThe upper part of a woman's dress.
“The wedding dress had a lace bodice and a long silk skirt.”
bodice is a garment part.
A spelling of bodies, the plural of body, since the garment was made as a pair of halves.
Built from
From bodies, plural of body (“upper part of a dress”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA