suit

—suitlike, adj.

/sooht/, n.

1. a set of clothing, armor, or the like, intended for wear together.

2. a set of men's garments of the same color and fabric, consisting of trousers, a jacket, and sometimes a vest.

3. a similarly matched set consisting of a skirt and jacket, and sometimes a topcoat or blouse, worn by women.

4. any costume worn for some special activity: a running suit.

5. Slang. a business executive.

6. Law. the act, the process, or an instance of suing in a court of law; legal prosecution; lawsuit.

7. Cards.

a. one of the four sets or classes (spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs) into which a common deck of playing cards is divided.

b. the aggregate of cards belonging to one of these sets held in a player's hand at one time: Spades were his long suit.

c. one of various sets or classes into which less common decks of cards are divided, as lances, hammers, etc., found in certain decks formerly used or used in fortune telling.

8. suite (defs. 1-3, 5).

9. the wooing or courting of a woman: She rejected his suit.

10. the act of making a petition or an appeal.

11. a petition, as to a person of rank or station.

12. Also called set. Naut. a complete group of sails for a boat.

13. one of the seven classes into which a standard set of 28 dominoes may be divided by matching the numbers on half the face of each: a three suit contains the 3-blank, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, and 3-6. Since each such suit contains one of each of the other possible suits, only one complete suit is available per game.

14. follow suit,

a. Cards. to play a card of the same suit as that led.

b. to follow the example of another: The girl jumped over the fence, and her playmates followed suit.

v.t.

15. to make appropriate, adapt, or accommodate, as one thing to another: to suit the punishment to the crime.

16. to be appropriate or becoming to: Blue suits you very well.

17. to be or prove satisfactory, agreeable, or acceptable to; satisfy or please: The arrangements suit me.

18. to provide with a suit, as of clothing or armor; clothe; array.

v.i.

19. to be appropriate or suitable; accord.

20. to be satisfactory, agreeable, or acceptable.

21. suit up, to dress in a uniform or special suit.

[1250-1300; ME siute, sute, suite (n.) < AF, OF, akin to sivre to follow. See SUE, SUITE]

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▪ clothing

 in dress design, matching set of clothes consisting, for example, of a coat, vest, and trousers. The shift in Western masculine attire from the doublet to the present-day suit began in the 1660s at the courts of Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England. The reformed style consisted of a long coat with wide, turned-back sleeves and a row of buttons down the front, some of which were left unbuttoned to reveal a vest (later called a waistcoat in England), an undergarment almost identical to the coat.

      At first the vest had long sleeves that showed below the turned-back sleeves of the coat and then the sleeves were dispensed with entirely. Neither coat nor vest had a collar or lapels. To complete the new mode, tight-fitting breeches were worn with stockings gartered below the knee. By 1670 this type of suit had become the firmly established style for men and was worn with no essential change until the end of the 18th century.

 From the time of the French Revolution until well into the 19th century, a man's suit consisted of a short, fitted waistcoat (called a veston in France); below-knee-length breeches or long trousers; and a long outer coat. A top hat was worn with it. By the 1830s, breeches were worn as compulsory court attire and by the elderly and the unfashionable, and long trousers were worn by everyone else.

 The prototype of the modern suit appeared in 1860 as the “lounge suit,” which was for informal wear and consisted of long trousers; a waistcoat, or vest (often elaborately decorated); and a short coat. The desire on the part of the middle class for gentlemanly clothes led to great conformity in men's suits; since the 19th century men's fashions have remained more or less static.

 Women's “tailor-made” suits became very popular in the second half of the 19th century for sport and traveling. When women began to work outside the home after the Civil War and even more so after World War I, they adopted this form of suit, which consisted of a matching skirt and jacket. In the second half of the 20th century, women began to wear matching jackets and trousers (pantsuits).

 

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