frock

[frok]

noun

1. a gown or dress worn by a girl or woman.

2. a loose outer garment worn by peasants and workers; smock.

3. a coarse outer garment with large sleeves, worn by monks.

4. frock coat.

verb (used with object)

1. to provide with, or clothe in, a frock.

2. to invest with priestly or clerical office.

frock

/ frɒk /

noun

1. a girl's or woman's dress

2. a loose garment of several types, such as a peasant's smock

3. a coarse wide-sleeved outer garment worn by members of some religious orders

verb

1. (tr) to invest (a person) with the office or status of a cleric

Other Word Forms

• frockless adjective
• underfrock noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of frock¹

1300–50; Middle English froke < Old French froc < Frankish; compare Old Saxon, Old High German hroc coat

Word History and Origins

Origin of frock¹

C14: from Old French froc ; related to Old Saxon, Old High German hroc coat

Example Sentences

When her rival, Poot’s Thea, arrives underdressed, Hedda forces her into a hideous frock with fussy bows and an ungainly skirt.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

This year’s big Cannes fashion headline is that women are no longer allowed to wear “voluminous” frocks on the steps.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

One reason he endures is because a lot of the society we see is Grace Kelly in beautiful frocks and Cary Grant in gorgeous suits in cocktail world drawing rooms.

Read more on Salon

It is summer in the Midwest, hot as soup, and I don a frock the size of a twin bed sheet in cooling cotton.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Ministers publicly describe the fuss over frocks and football tickets as a "distraction" - a word politicians like to use when they are describing something they know is embarrassing and find hard to explain.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• apron 
• gown 
• robe