Handkerchief

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Handkerchief \Hand"ker*chief\ (h[a^][ng]"k[~e]r*ch[i^]f; 277),
     n. [Hand + kerchief.]
     1. A piece of cloth, usually square and often fine and
        elegant, carried for wiping the face or hands.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. A piece of cloth shaped like a handkerchief to be worn
        about the neck; a neckerchief; a neckcloth.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  handkerchief
       n : a square piece of cloth used for wiping the eyes or nose or
           as a costume accessory [syn: {hankie}, {hanky}, {hankey}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Handkerchief
     Only once in Authorized Version (Acts 19:12). The Greek word
     (sudarion) so rendered means properly "a sweat-cloth." It is
     rendered "napkin" in John 11:44; 20:7; Luke 19:20.
     

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  HANDKERCHIEF, n.  A small square of silk or linen, used in various
  ignoble offices about the face and especially serviceable at funerals
  to conceal the lack of tears.  The handkerchief is of recent
  invention; our ancestors knew nothing of it and intrusted its duties
  to the sleeve.  Shakespeare's introducing it into the play of
  "Othello" is an anachronism:  Desdemona dried her nose with her skirt,
  as Dr. Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattails
  in our own day -- an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward.