vestment

[ vest-muhnt ]

noun

1. a garment, especially an outer garment.
2. vestments, Chiefly Literary. attire; clothing.
3. an official or ceremonial robe.
4. Ecclesiastical.
   1. one of the garments worn by the clergy and their assistants, choristers, etc., during divine service and on other occasions.
   2. one of the garments worn by the celebrant, deacon, and subdeacon during the celebration of the Eucharist.
5. something that clothes or covers like a garment:

   a mountaintop with a vestment of clouds.

vestment

/ ˈvɛstmənt; vɛstˈmɛntəl /

noun

1. a garment or robe, esp one denoting office, authority, or rank
2. any of various ceremonial garments worn by the clergy at religious services

Derived Forms

• vestmental, adjective

Other Words From

• vest·men·tal [vest-, men, -tl], adjective
• vestment·ed adjective
• sub·vestment noun
• super·vestment noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of vestment¹

1250–1300; syncopated variant of Middle English vestiment < Medieval Latin vestīmentum priestly robe, Latin: garment, equivalent to vestī ( re ) to dress ( vest ) + -mentum -ment

Word History and Origins

Origin of vestment¹

C13: from Old French vestiment, from Latin vestīmentum clothing, from vestīre to clothe

Example Sentences

This clerical vestment, embroidered in about 1300 in England, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

From The Daily Beast

On the wall hung a piece of an ecclesiastical vestment, red and embroidered with gold.

From Project Gutenberg

They are but secular things after all; the things that are eternal reach deeper than creed or vestment.

From Project Gutenberg

Amphibalus, am-fib′a-lus, n. an ecclesiastical vestment like the chasuble.

From Project Gutenberg

This mode lasted some time; for in 1538, Barbara Mason bequeathed to a church a “vestment of green silk beaten with gold.”

From Project Gutenberg

Then just in front of them the priest in his white vestment, standing exposed, and just baldly beginning an address.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• frock
• garb
• robe
• stole
• tunic