English term
making a hasty toilet
Non-PRO (1): Tony M
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Responses
United States
Translating words, preserving meaning
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, English
after quickly getting dressed / tidying myself up
"the act of dressing or grooming oneself"
I don't think it has anything to do with his having relieved himself in the bathroom.
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Samantha Payn
52 mins
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Gracias, Samantha.
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John Alphonse (X)
3 hrs
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Thanks, John.
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Charles Davis
: Exactly. It doesn't even necessarily include washing, despite what one might have supposed. // That's right. In fact I should have omitted "necessarily".
4 hrs
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Thank you, Charles. In fact, "washing" doesn't seem to be included in the dictionary definitions that I've seen.
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Tina Vonhof (X)
: Washed and dressed is also an option but washing is often assumed to be ncluded.
5 hrs
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Thanks, Tina.
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Victoria Britten
6 hrs
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Thank you, Victoria.
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Allison Wright (X)
: I am with B D Finch on the idea that washing (of one's hands and face) is included. Just enough to look presentable, at Jenni Lucas said.
6 hrs
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Thank you, Allison.
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Phong Le
16 hrs
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Thank you, Phong.
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British Diana
: getting dressed normally implies washing. In thise days you didn't go to the bathroom to wash, just had a pitcher of water and poured it into a bowl in the bedroom.
17 hrs
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I agree, and that is why most people would tend to think it is implicit in the definition, even though (as I pointed out) it is not part of dictionary definitions of the term. Thank you, Diana.
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SafeTex
: Have you seen the original text? http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/vampires/classicstory/dracula_p1.s... The narrator is not getting up and is not 'in his pyjamas' (or nude). So 'get dressed' is out for me. The question did not give enough context of course
1 day 11 hrs
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Have a look at my response. I suggested two possibilities. In any case, and as you admit in your own response, the context suggests the possibility of a change of attire.
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Jim Tucker (X)
: (cf. Fr "toile", fabric, cloth)
1 day 15 hrs
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Thank you, Jim.
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grooming myself/ primping himself quickly
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Yvette Neisser Moreno
4 mins
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Thanks, Yvette. I really should have read "groomed himself/primped himself." Happy New Year!
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katsy
51 mins
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Thanks, katsy. Happy New Year.
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Veronika McLaren
2 hrs
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Thanks, Veronika. I hope the year has gotten off to a good start.
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B D Finch
: I'd agree, except that I think it has to include washing.
2 hrs
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I tried to include a list in the explanation. All the best for 2013.
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John Alphonse (X)
3 hrs
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Thanks, John. Happy New Year.
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washed his face, cleaned his teeth and so on in a hurry
after freshening up
The narrator has just made a long journey and does not get DRESSED but perhaps CHANGED if that.
Or possibly 'dressed for diner' but it is not clear in the text
As it is a after a long journey, I'm suggesting this phrase which we often use in this context
The text is in the reference
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Robert Forstag
: If the possibility remains that the individual in question has changed clothes (as you recognize here), then "after freshening up" will not do.
4 days
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Discussion
I have to say that initially I shared the assumption others have expressed: that "making one's toilet" included washing. Perhaps it seems so because it sounds like something you do in the bathroom, or at least with a washbasin, and "toiletries" are nowadays associated with washing. But this assumption has no basis in the period. Perhaps this character did wash, but making his toilet did not refer to that, and people generally washed much less than we do (though more than they had up to about 1850, which was virtually never).
This is not a non-Pro question, in my view.
Here's the full 1913 entry:
" Toi"let (?), n. [F. toilette, dim. of toile cloth. See Toil a net.]
1. A covering of linen, silk, or tapestry, spread over a table in a chamber or a dressing room.
2. A dressing table. Pope.
3. Act or mode of dressing, or that which is arranged in dressing; attire; dress; as, her toilet is perfect. [Written also toilette.] Toilet glass, a looking-glass for a toilet table or for a dressing room. -- Toilet service, Toilet set, earthenware, glass, and other utensils for a dressing room. -- Toilet table, a dressing table; a toilet. See def. 2 above. -- To snake [sic, for "make"] one's toilet, to dress one's self; especially, to dress one's self carefully."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=toilet&...