Word.ws English Dictionary

cravat

Syllables: cra·vatUK/kɹəˈvat/US/kɹəˈvæt/

cravat noun: a wide fabric band worn as a necktie by men having long ends hanging in front.

cravat: a wide fabric band worn as a necktie by men having long ends hanging in front
Image: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cravat (plural cravats)

  1. A wide fabric band worn as a necktie by men having long ends hanging in front.
    • It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, “The Dissolution”, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 3
    • I'm not like, a fashion person, so maybe I just don't get it, but I don't even understand how you're going to match. What, are you going to get like... a cravat that's the same color as her dress? / I would rock a dope cravat.2025, S.E. Case, chapter 1, in Rigsby WI, volume 1: Foothold, →ISBN, retrieved 23 Aug 2025, page 9
  2. (historical) A decorative fabric band or scarf worn around the neck by women.
  3. A bandage resembling a cravat, particularly a triangular bandage folded into a strip.

Verb

cravat (third-person singular simple present cravats, present participle cravatting, simple past and past participle cravatted)

  1. (rare, transitive) To adorn with a cravat; to tie a cravat, or something resembling a cravat, around the neck.

cravat meaning in Bengali and Kannada

cravat in Bengali

স্কার্ফ, গলাপট্টি

cravat in Kannada

ಕತ್ತುಪಟ್ಟಿ, ಕಂಠವಸ್ತ್ರ, ಕಾಲರು, ಕೊರಳ ಪಟ್ಟಿ

Forms of cravat

Noun
pluralcravats
Verb
third-person singular presentcravats
present participlecravatting
past participlecravatted
pastcravatted

Origin of cravat

From French cravate, an appellative use of Cravate (“Croat”), from Dutch Krawaat, from German Krawatte, from Serbo-Croatian Hr̀vāt/Хр̀ва̄т (“Croat”). The cravat is regarded as originating from a linen scarf worn by Croatian mercenaries which was adopted into French fashion in the 17th century. Doublet of Croat.

Words formed from cravat

Questions about cravat

What does cravat mean?
Cravat means a wide fabric band worn as a necktie by men having long ends hanging in front.
What is cravat in Bengali?
Cravat in Bengali is স্কার্ফ, গলাপট্টি. See Cravat meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is cravat?
Cravat can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce cravat?
Cravat is pronounced /kɹəˈvat/ (UK).
What is the plural of cravat?
The plural of cravat is cravats.

Words near cravat in the dictionary

  1. craunches
  2. craunching
  3. craunchingly
  4. Crauns
  5. cravache
  6. cravat
  7. cravate
  8. cravated
  9. cravates
  10. Cravath
  11. Cravaths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cravat (page history and authors); cravat (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cravat (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-cravat.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cravat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cravat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.