toweling

Noun

towelling (usually uncountable, plural towellings)

1. (countable, uncountable, usually) Any fabric suitable for towels, such as huckaback or terry cloth.
   • My rule is to give for winter a linsey suit, one shirt of best towelling, one hat, one pair of shoes, a good blanket, costing $2 to $2 50, every other year […]1852, J. D. B. De Bow, The Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western States
2. (countable, usually) A thrashing.
   • Officer Whittle then consulted another colleague. "My choices are — make an enemy of Scott [Budd] for life and run the charges, risk making the AFP look poorly because Scott is towelling the bloke up in the cells like a c**khead," the email read.2026 July 4, Amy Greenbank, Jade Toomey, Dylan Welch, “Extraordinary internal police emails revealed after Indigenous man allegedly beaten by officer”, in ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Verb

towel (third-person singular simple present towels, present participle (US) toweling or (UK) towelling, simple past and past participle (US) toweled or (UK) towelled)

1. (transitive) To dry by using a towel.
   • He got out of the shower and toweled himself dry.
2. (transitive) To hit with a towel.
3. (transitive) To block up (a door, etc.) with a towel, to conceal the fumes of a recreational drug.
   • We would open the windows, towel the door, and turn my bedroom into an Allman Brothers concert.2012, Dave Tomar, The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat
4. (UK, dialectal, obsolete, transitive) To beat with a stick, or "oaken towel".

See all 5 meanings of towel