noun

toilet

TOY-luht

noun

A fixture, usually with a bowl and seat, used for urination and defecation and flushed with water.

"The toilet in the upstairs bathroom needs a new flush valve."

"He got up in the night to use the toilet."

A room containing such a fixture; a bathroom or restroom.

"The public toilets at the station were locked after midnight."

A very dirty or run-down place (informal, disparaging).

"That motel was an absolute toilet — we left after one night."

verb

To urinate or defecate in a toilet, or to help someone (such as a child) do so.

"The nursery staff help toilet the younger children after lunch."

How to Use Toilet

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishThe bathroom fixture used for urinating and defecating, or the room that contains it.

UK vs US

In British English "toilet" is the everyday word; American English tends to prefer "bathroom" or "restroom" in polite company.

Common pairings

flush the toilet public toilet toilet paper

Word Forms

toileted past tense, toiletted past tense, toilets plural, toilets singular

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Fill the Gap

Can you complete this real example?

The _____ in the upstairs bathroom needs a new flush valve.

Etymology

From French "toilette," a diminutive of "toile" ("cloth"), originally the cloth spread over a dressing table; the word later shifted to mean the grooming process itself, then euphemistically to the bathroom fixture, a shift that took hold in the US in the late 1800s.

Synonyms

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