shawl

UK/ʃɔːl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ʃoːl/

shawl noun: a square or rectangular piece of cloth worn as a covering for the head, neck, and shoulders, typically by women.

Noun

shawl (plural shawls)

A square or rectangular piece of cloth worn as a covering for the head, neck, and shoulders, typically by women.
- She wears her shawl when it's cold outside.
- Just then Norbourne entered the chamber; and, fancying from her attitude that his wife was asleep, he approached softly, and drew a large shawl around her.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 60
A fold of wrinkled flesh under the lips and neck of a bloodhound, used in scenting.

Verb

shawl (third-person singular simple present shawls, present participle shawling, simple past and past participle shawled)

(transitive) To wrap in a shawl.
- Rebecca was shawling her in an upper apartment , where these two friends had an opportunity for a little of that secret talking and conspiring which forms the delight of female life1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

shawl meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

shawl in Hindi

a square piece of cloth worn as a covering for the head, neck, and shoulders: शाल śāl

shawl in Tamil

போர்வை, சால்வை

shawl in Marathi

a square piece of cloth worn as a covering for the head, neck, and shoulders: शाल śāl

shawl in Urdu

a square piece of cloth worn as a covering for the head, neck, and shoulders: شال śāl

More languagesFewer languages

shawl in Bengali: শাল śal
shawl in Telugu: శాలువ śāluva
shawl in Malayalam: ഷോൾ, ഉത്തരീയം, അംഗവസ്ത്രം, സാൽവ
shawl in Kannada: ಶಾಲು śālu
shawl in Punjabi: ਸ਼ਾਲ śāl, ਫੁਲਕਾਰੀ phulkārī, ਚਾਦਰ cādar
shawl in Gujarati: શાલ śāl
shawl in Odia: ଶାଲ୍
shawl in Sanskrit: शाटी śāṭī
shawl in Pashto: دوپټه dopaṭa
shawl in Arabic: شَال šāl
shawl in Malay: sebai, syal
shawl in Indonesian: syal
shawl in Persian: شال šâl

Examples of shawl in a sentence

Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
He wore two top coats, a broad brimmed hat, and an enormous red travelling shawl, behind the folds of which his portly double chin was entirely hidden.1958 October, “Liverpool to London in 1842”, in Railway Magazine, page 682:
She wore a wide shawl over her head which hung down on either side, only partially hiding a starched, white apron..1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 26:

All 33 example sentences with shawl

Forms of shawl

Noun
plural	shawls
Verb
third-person singular present	shawls
present participle	shawling
past participle	shawled
past	shawled

Plural of shawl: shawls

Origin of shawl

Borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi शाल (śāl) / Urdu شال (śāl)), from Classical Persian شال (šāl). Doublet of sari through Sanskrit.

Words formed from shawl

Phrases with shawl

Words that rhyme with shawl

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shawl

What does shawl mean?: Shawl means a square or rectangular piece of cloth worn as a covering for the head, neck, and shoulders, typically by women.
What is shawl in Hindi?: Shawl in Hindi is शाल (śāl). See Shawl meaning in Hindi.
How do you use shawl in a sentence?: Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady.
What part of speech is shawl?: Shawl can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce shawl?: Shawl is pronounced /ʃɔːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of shawl?: The plural of shawl is shawls.

Words near shawl in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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