dishabille

English

Alternative forms

• deshabille

Etymology

From French déshabillé.

Pronunciation

• enPR: dĭs'əbēlʹ, -bilʹ, IPA^(key): /dɪsəˈbiːl/, /-ˈbɪl/
• Rhymes: -iːl, -ɪl

Noun

dishabille (countable and uncountable, plural dishabilles)

1. Extreme casual or disorderly dress, for example, with the shirt-tail out, sleeves unbuttoned, etc.
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 260, column 1:

     When I rallied him for viſiting me in ſuch a diſhabille, he ſtood a tiptoe to view himſelf in the glaſs; and owning I was in the right, ſaid that he would go and dreſs himſelf before dinner.

   • 1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:

     Wherever they went, some pattened girl stopped to curtsy, or some footman in dishabille sneaked off. Yet this was an abbey!

   • 1891, Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

     A little after 3:15 o’clock yesterday afternoon a stream of people, hatless, coatless, some in an even worse state of dishabille rushed down the stairs or to the elevators of every one of the downtown buildings and onto the streets, their faces showing every sign of terror.

2. A loose, negligent dress.
   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 44

     She wore a dishabille of mignonette-green silk and bead-diapered head-dress that added several inches to her height […]

See also

• deshabille
• habiliment