gown

  • noun 1 a long dress worn on formal occasions. 2 a protective garment worn in hospital by surgical staff or patients. 3 a loose cloak indicating one’s profession or status, worn by a lawyer, teacher, academic, or university student. 4 the members of a university as distinct from the residents of a town.

  • verb (be gowned) be dressed in a gown.

  — ORIGIN Old French goune, from Latin gunna ‘fur garment’.

Perform another search of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary

About this dictionary
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English contains 145,000 words, phrases, and definitions.
Find out more about Oxford's range of English dictionaries
Sign up for the AskOxford Word of the Day

Search the Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Search the Concise Dictionary of First Names