toilet

plural toilets · alternative toilette

1. AustraliaHong KongIndiaUKA room, enclosed area or single-purpose building containing a fixture or fixtures used for urination and defecation; a bathroom or water closet.First known use 19th c.

   Sorry, I was in the toilet.

   2 more examples

   He would hit her when she cried and, if this did not work, would lock her in the toilet for hours on end.

   2002, Digby Tantam, Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice: A Narrative Framework, page 122

   He wet his thumb with saliva pressing on the tongue, ran it up and down faster over the letter 'I' of 'TOILET', the 'LADIES TOILET' was transformed into 'LADIES TO LET' in no time.

   2014, C.S. Walter, Abandoned Bridges, pp. 105 f.

   Synonyms: facilities

   1. AustraliaHong KongIndiaNew ZealandUKA small secondary lavatory having a fixture used for urination and defecation and sink but no bathtub or shower.

      Synonyms: facilities, half bath, half bathroom, cloakroom

2. A fixture used for urination and defecation, particularly one with a large bowl and ring-shaped seat which uses water to flush the waste material into a septic tank or sewer system.First known use 19th c.

   My toilet got clogged. Now the bathroom's flooded.

3. figurativelyA very shabby or dirty place.First known use 20th c.

   Look around you. It's a toilet.

   1982, The Mosquito Coast

   1 more example

   Mr. Gaunt was urbane and smiling again, not a hair out of place. "Do you like this little town? Do you love it? […]" / […] "I hate this fucking toilet," he said to Leland Gaunt.

   1991, Stephen King, Needful Things

4. obsoleteA covering of linen, silk, or tapestry, spread over a dressing table in a chamber or dressing room.First known use 17th–19th c.
5. obsoleteThe table covered by such a cloth; a dressing table.First known use 17th–19th c.

   And now, unveil’d, the toilet stands display’d, / Each silver vase in mystic order laid.

   1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, lines 121-126

6. archaichistoricalPersonal grooming; the process of washing, dressing and arranging the hair.First known use 17th c.

   Come as you are, tarry not over your toilet.

   1913, Rabindranath Tagore, Come as you are..., Poetry Foundation, page 85

   4 more examples

   Against that short evening her toilet was consulted the whole day […].

   1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Oxford, published 2009, page 118

   Beautiful eyes are the gift of Nature, and can owe little to the toilet.

   1876, Eliza Bisbee Duffey, Our Behaviour: A Manual of Etiquette and Dress of the Best American Society, Philadelphia

   Three women got down and standing on the curb they made unabashed toilets, smoothing skirts and stockings, brushing one another's back, opening parcels and donning various finery.

   1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 111

   Here, at night, a lonely but brilliantly neon-illuminated figure, I performed my toilet, watched incuriously by the Burmese seated at the tables of the tea-shops below.

   1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth, Chapter 8

   Synonyms: toilette

7. archaicOne's style of dressing: dress, outfit.First known use 18th c.

   It is so painful in you, Celia, that you will look at human beings as if they were merely animals with a toilette, and never see the great soul in a man's face.

   1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 25

   1 more example

   "It is a quarter-past two," he said. "Your telegram was dispatched about one. But no one can glance at your toilet and attire without seeing that your disturbance dates from the moment of your waking."

   1917, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge

8. archaicA dressing room.First known use 19th c.
9. obsoleteA chamber pot.

   Synonyms: can, chamber, chamber pot, chemical toilet, commode, Cousin John, crapper, gazunder

10. derogatoryincel slangA woman.

    I’m not interested in toilets and I don’t think a gf [Girlfriend] is needed to live a fulfilling life.

    2021, anonymous, quoted in Hugo Engholm, "The lack of looks: A study on the Incel ideology of Incelism during the 2010s–2020s and its relation to historical and contemporary ideologies particularly within far right milieus", thesis submitted to the University of Uppsala, page 72

    2 more examples

    A user, @blacklister, concludes that “toilets are as vacuous as their value besides pleasing men”, with a remark on how women should be handed out by the state to every man to minimise inceldom.

    2022, Elina Maaranen, "How incel users' communication discriminate women", thesis submitted to Karlstad University, page 24

    I can’t bare listening to a toilet talk. I don’t wanna listen to toilet songs,or watch them in movies. They have nothing to offer other than sexuality

    2023, "TheShingTard", quoted in Emma Catherine Leger, "'Misogyny is self defense': A critical analysis of Incel discourse and belief on Incels.is", thesis submitted to Carleton University, page 104

present singular third person toilets · participle present toileting · participle present rare toiletting · participle past toileted · past toileted · participle past rare toiletted · past rare toiletted · alternative toilette

1. datedTo dress and groom oneself.
2. To use (urinate or defecate in) a toilet.

   We use imitation. We take a doll, a doll that can wet, and make sure it has pants on it. We use the principle that a very effective way of learning is by teaching. Se we have him teach the doll how to toilet properly.

   1974, Philip J. Hilts, Behavior Mod, Harper's Magazine Press, page 74

   1 more example

   In many developing regions, toileting at night is especially dangerous for children. Without electrical power for lighting, kids may fall into the deep pits of the latrines through broken or unsteady floorboards. Girls are sometimes assaulted by men who hide in the dark.

   2024 February 17 (last accessed), Jenny Morber, “Scientists turn pee into power in Uganda”, in Upworthy Science, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2024

3. To assist another (a child, etc.) in using a toilet.

   Synonyms: bathroom