Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Costume"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Costume \Cos"tume`\ (k?s"t?m` or k?s-t?m"), n. [F. costume, It.
costume custom, dress, fr. L. consuetumen (not found), for
consuetudo custom. See {Custom}, and cf. {Consuetude}.]
1. Dress in general; esp., the distinctive style of dress of
a people, class, or period.
2. Such an arrangement of accessories, as in a picture,
statue, poem, or play, as is appropriate to the time,
place, or other circumstances represented or described.
I began last night to read Walter Scott's Lay of the
Last Minstrel . . . .I was extremely delighted with
the poetical beauty of some parts . . . .The
costume, too, is admirable. --Sir J.
Mackintosh.
3. A character dress, used at fancy balls or for dramatic
purposes.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
costume
adj : characterized by the use of period costume or fancy dress;
"a costume movie"; "a costume ball"
n 1: the attire worn in a play or at a fancy dress ball; "he won
the prize for best costume"
2: unusual or period attire not characteristic of or
appropriate to the time and place; "in spite of the heat
he insisted on his woolen costume"
3: the prevalent fashion of dress (including accessories and
hair style as well as garments)
4: the attire characteristic of a country or a time or a social
class; "he wore his national costume"
v 1: dress in a costume; "We dressed up for Halloween as
pumpkins" [syn: {dress up}]
2: furnish with costumes; as for a film or play
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