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suit definition

Overview

This page has 24 definitions of suit with English translations in 4 languages. Suit is a noun and verb. Examples of how to use suit in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: Suit and süit

English suit definition

Etymology

From Middle English sute, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suite and Old French sieute, siute (modern suite), originally a participle adjective from Vulgar Latin *sequita (for secūta), from Latin sequi (“to follow”), because the component garments "follow each other", i.e. are worn together. See also the doublet suite. Cognate with Italian seguire and Spanish seguir. Related to sue and segue.

Pronunciation

Noun
A man in a three-piece suit with a bowler hat, glasses and an umbrella.

suit (plural suits)

  1. A set of clothes to be worn together, now especially a man's matching jacket and trousers (also business suit or lounge suit), or a similar outfit for a woman.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎[1]:
      A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.
    • 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.
    Nick hired a navy-blue suit for the wedding.
  2. (by extension) A garment or set of garments suitable and/or required for a given task or activity: space suit, boiler suit, protective suit, swimsuit.
  3. (derogatory, slang, metonymically) A person who wears matching jacket and trousers, especially a boss or a supervisor.
    Be sure to keep your nose to the grindstone today; the suits are making a "surprise" visit to this department.
    • 2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 29:
      Two smartly dressed suits walked up to the doctor. "Are you alright Dr. La Perouse?"
  4. A full set of armour.
  5. (law) The attempt to gain an end by legal process; a process instituted in a court of law for the recovery of a right or claim; a lawsuit.
    If you take my advice, you'll file a suit against him immediately.
  6. Petition, request, entreaty.
  7. (obsolete): The act of following or pursuing; pursuit, chase.
  8. Pursuit of a love-interest; wooing, courtship.
    • 1725, Alexander Pope, Odyssey (original by Homer)
      Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend,
      Till this funereal web my labors end.
  9. (obsolete) The act of suing; the pursuit of a particular object or goal.
  10. The full set of sails required for a ship.
  12. (card games) Each of the sets of a pack of cards distinguished by color and/or specific emblems, such as the spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs of traditional Anglo, Hispanic, and French playing cards.
    • 1785, William Cowper, The Task
      To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort
      Her mingled suits and sequences.
  13. (obsolete) Regular order; succession.
    Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again.
  14. (archaic) A company of attendants or followers; a retinue.
  15. (archaic) A group of similar or related objects or items considered as a whole; a suite (of rooms etc.)
    • 1837, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Ethel Churchill, volume 1, pages 212-213:
      "You must wear these to-day, my dear child," said Lord Norbourne, as, entering the dressing-room of his daughter, he laid a suit of pearls on her table

Hyponyms

 

Derived terms

 

Related terms

Descendants

Translations

attempt to gain an end by legal process — see lawsuit
pursuit, chase — see pursuit
pursuit of love interest — see courtship
company of attendants or followers — see retinue

See also

Suits in English · suits (see also: cards, playing cards) (layout · text)
hearts diamonds spades clubs

References

Verb

suit (third-person singular simple present suits, present participle suiting, simple past and past participle suited)

  1. (transitive) To make proper or suitable; to adapt or fit.
  2. (said of clothes, hairstyle or other fashion item, transitive) To be suitable or apt for one's image.
    The ripped jeans didn't suit her elegant image.
    That new top suits you. Where did you buy it?
  3. (transitive) To be appropriate or apt for.
    The nickname "Bullet" suits her, since she is a fast runner.
    • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Cymon and Iphigenia, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415:
      Ill suits his cloth the praise of railing well.
    • c. 1700, Matthew Prior, epistle to Dr. Sherlock
      Raise her notes to that sublime degree / Which suits song of piety and thee.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0029:
      “ […] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
    • 1968, Fred Neil (lyrics and music), “Everybody's Talkin'”, performed by Harry Nilsson:
      I'm going where the sun keeps shinin' […] / Going where the weather suits my clothes
  4. (most commonly used in the passive form, intransitive) To dress; to clothe.
  5. To please; to make content; to fit one's taste.
    He is well suited with his place.
    My new job suits me, as I work fewer hours and don't have to commute so much.
  6. (intransitive) To agree; to be fitted; to correspond (usually followed by to, archaically also followed by with)
    Synonyms: agree, match, answer

Derived terms

Translations

to please, to make content

Anagrams

French suit definition

Pronunciation

Verb

suit

  1. third-person singular present indicative of suivre

Latin suit definition

Pronunciation

Verb

suit

  1. third-person singular present active indicative of suō

Norman suit definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English suit.

Noun

suit m (plural suits)

  1. (Jersey) suit (of clothes)

Synonyms

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