Meaning of kirtle | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A knee-length tunic.
2. A short jacket.
3. A woman's gown; a woman's outer petticoat or skirt.

Equivalents

Examples

“All in a kirtle of diſcolourd ſay / He clothed was, ypaynted full of eies; / And in his boſome ſecretly there lay / An hatefull Snake, the which his taile vptyes / In many folds, and mortall ſting implyes.”

“Few words have occasioned such controversy among the commentators on our old plays, as this; and all for want of knowing that it is used in a two-fold sense, sometimes for the jacket merely, and sometimes for the train or upper petticoat attached to it. A full kirtle was always a jacket and petticoat, a half kirtle (a term which frequently occurs) was either the one or the other; but our ancestors, who wrote when this article of dress was every where in use, and when there was little danger of being misunderstood, most commonly contented themselves with the simple term, (kirtle,) leaving the sense to be gathered from the context.”

“Many of the church dignitaries are distinguishable by peculiarities of dress, as the shovel hat and kirtle.”

“Her eyes were large, and full of light, / Her arms and neck were bare; / No garment she wore save a kirtle bright, / And her own long, raven hair.”

“KIRTLE, […] a Sort of ſhort Jacket.”

“A man's jacket was also called a kirtle.”

“Per[igot] VVell decked in a frocke of gray, / Wil[ly] hey ho, gray is greet, / Per. And in a kirtle of green ſay, / [Wil.] the greene is for maydens meet.”

“A cap of flowers, and a kirtle / Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;”

“Dol[l Tearsheet] I loue thee better than I loue thee, ere a ſcuruy yong boy of them all. / Fal[staff] What ſtuffe wilt haue a kirtle of? I ſhall receiue mony a thurſday, ſhalt haue a cap to morrow: […]”

“[Y]ou must cut these fine tresses close by your ears, your rich kirtle close by the knee: you must bear my bow and carry my arrows, ay, and be ready at once to go to the greenwood with one for whose head much gold is offered.”

“Around his waist was a kind of kirtle, the skin of some animal.”

“Janet tied her kirtle green, / Above her knee and not below / And she's gone to Carterhaugh / just as fast as she can go”

“Women, like men, also typically wore three layers of clothing. Women's underclothing consisted of a smock or chemise and hose. Next came a kirtle, a long garment originally with short or no sleeves, worn over the smock, chemise, and hose. Over time, kirtles became increasingly fitted, with ever-lengthening sleeves. Over kirtles, women wore a variety of outer tunics, such as the houppelande, or a sleeveless tabard or pelisse.”

CEFR level