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Glite Dictionary
sailor suit

sailor suit

3 3.2
An outfit for a child or adult that looks like a traditional sailor uniform
  • noun
  • /ˈseɪlər suːt/
translation icon : traje de marinero
  • She was wearing a seventy-year-old sailor suit that was too big for her, complete with hat.
  • wearing a sailor suit
  • dressed in a sailor suit
  • boy in a sailor suit

Examples

  • You are in a classy crisp white sailor suit get-up with gold buttons and earrings to match.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Does Tommy only have a closet full of sailor suits?

    Blog text (25)

  • The boy was wearing a sailor suit.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • So he wears this little sailor suit, right?

    Doctor Detroit (1983)

  • He turned back and searched for the boy in the sailor suit, but the child had disappeared, and there was nothing left to look at but the pigeons.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • She bent to cozy her sandal back on and, when she looked up, noticed the boy in the sailor suit had disappeared.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • I found a fabulous sailor shirt thrifting over the summer that I can't wait to make into a full-on sailor suit for Halloween!

    Blog text (27)

  • His dog's great size garnered a good share of cautious interest, and Jonathan, dressed in a new sailor suit, was busy eluding all prospects of being dandled on knees or pressed to bosoms.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • When they had been small and dressed in blue sailor suits, Lucy's tights had sagged, her bow had gone crooked, and by the time Rosemary had set her straight, she would find her own wrinkles and tears.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The boy wore a sailor suit and new red Keds for the family photo.

Surface Forms

sailor suit singular
sailor suits plural

Morphology

sailor + suit

The meaning 'a suit styled after a sailor's uniform' is directly and compositionally derived from 'sailor' (seafarer) + 'suit' (matching outfit). This noun–noun compound follows a common, cross-linguistic naming pattern (a suit associated with sailors), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The compound noun sailor suit comes from a style long ago when children were dressed to look like real sailors, wearing a small suit with a wide collar and a little tie. That's why sailor suit now means 'a child's outfit that looks like a sailor's uniform'.