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corset

UK/ˈkɔː(ɹ).sɪt/US/ˈkɔː(ɹ).sɪt/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,749 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: corsets

A corset is a stiff close-fitting undergarment that shapes the waist. Lace a corset.

It shaped a silhouette for four centuries and damaged a great many ribs doing it. To corset something figuratively means restricting it too tightly, which is what the word now does most often.

AnonymousUnknown author · Public domain

Definitions of corset

  1. 1nouncorsetA stiff close-fitting undergarment that shapes the waist.B2+

    “The corset in the museum had a waist of nineteen inches.”

corset is a garment.

Where it comes from

Old French corset is a diminutive of cors, the body, from Latin corpus.

  1. Old French

    corset

  2. Middle English

    corset

  3. English, today

    corset

From Middle English corset, from Old French corset. Equivalent to corse + -et.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

corset in the wild

  • A corset () is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and posture.

    Corset

  • Since the corset fell out of use, the fashion industry has extended the term "corset" to refer to garments which mimic the look of traditional corsets.

    Corset

  • A training corset is generally a corset used in body modification.

    Training corset

  • In corsetry, a bone is one of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame and gives it rigidity.

    Bone (corsetry)

  • The purpose of the boning in a corset varies slightly from era to era.

    Bone (corsetry)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.