Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
toweling

toweling

1 2.5
Soft cotton or linen cloth with small loops that soaks up water
  • noun
  • /ˈtaʊəlɪŋ/
  • US
translation icon : toalla
  • Emmanuel slung the towel around his burly neck, slid his shoulders into a toweling wrap, and sank into a canvas chair while Sylvia poured his coffee.
  • toweling robe
  • paper toweling
  • white toweling

Examples

  • It's a toweling mat, commonly used on the top of Australian hotel bars for the absorption of beer spillage.

    Reckless Kelly (1993)

  • Buy her a terry-toweling housecoat.

    Blog text (14)

  • The baby was lying on some paper toweling, and they bagged that.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Credits were printed on large rolls of toweling and taped at the very end.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Went back to the bathroom, stripped her clothes, put on one of the toweling robes, and then started unpacking.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • There were white toweling slippers in the cupboard with Peri Palas written on them in gold letters.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • She dropped her head sadly, turned aside from the encounter, and took out the hanging toweling robe from its transparent sheath of plastic.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Dorabella let Beth in and showed her upstairs to the drawing room where, after a brief wait, Vivienne joined her, ghostly pale, wearing only a plain toweling wrap.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • He ran a hand along the row of hangers in his closet, groping for the fuzzy shoulder of his worn white toweling robe.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • After a long swim, I wrapped myself in a soft toweling robe to stay warm.

Synonyms

terry
vstoweling
384 6.0

A strong cotton fabric with many small loops that soaks up water and is used for towels and robes

is the fuller descriptive form rather than the brief informal name
terry cloth
vstoweling
5 2.1

A thick cotton fabric with many small loops that soaks up water

is often written as one compound or as a shorter single term
terrycloth
vstoweling
3 3.9

A thick, absorbent cotton fabric used for towels and bathrobes

is written as separate words or shorter forms rather than one compound word

How Absorbent

microfiber
  • US
4 3.7
terrycloth
3 3.9
toweling
  • US
1 2.5
cotton
115 1.0
linen
111 1.0

Surface Forms

toweling singular
towelings plural

Morphology

toweling = towel (transparent) = towel + ing

The word is transparently built from 'towel' + '-ing' and refers to cloth associated with towels.

Etymology

Toweling comes from the everyday word towel plus the ending -ing, so it literally means 'cloth for towels'. That's why toweling describes a soft, looped fabric that soaks up water and is used to make towels.