suit

Etymology

From Middle English sute, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suite and Old French sieute, siute (modern suite), originally a participle adjective from Vulgar Latin *sequita (for secūta), from Latin sequi (“to follow”), because the component garments "follow each other", i.e. are worn together. See also the doublet suite. Cognate with Italian seguire and Spanish seguir. Related to sue and segue.

noun

1. A set of clothes to be worn together, now especially a man's matching jacket and trousers (also business suit or lounge suit), or a similar outfit for a woman.
   A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe. 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess
   Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food. 2013-08-03, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
   Nick hired a navy-blue suit for the wedding.
2. (by extension) A garment or set of garments suitable and/or required for a given task or activity: space suit, boiler suit, protective suit, swimsuit.
3. (derogatory, slang, metonymically) A person who wears matching jacket and trousers, especially a boss or a supervisor.
   Be sure to keep your nose to the grindstone today; the suits are making a "surprise" visit to this department.
   Two smartly dressed suits walked up to the doctor. "Are you alright Dr. La Perouse?" 2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 29
4. A full set of armour.
5. (law) The attempt to gain an end by legal process; a process instituted in a court of law for the recovery of a right or claim; a lawsuit.
   If you take my advice, you'll file a suit against him immediately.
6. Petition, request, entreaty.
7. (obsolete): The act of following or pursuing; pursuit, chase.
8. Pursuit of a love-interest; wooing, courtship.
   Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend, Till this funereal web my labors end. 1725, Alexander Pope, Odyssey (original by Homer)
9. (obsolete) The act of suing; the pursuit of a particular object or goal.
10. The full set of sails required for a ship.
11. (card games) Each of the sets of a pack of cards distinguished by color and/or specific emblems, such as the spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs of traditional Anglo, Hispanic, and French playing cards.
    To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort Her mingled suits and sequences. 1785, William Cowper, The Task
12. (obsolete) Regular order; succession.
    Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again.
13. (archaic) A company of attendants or followers; a retinue.
14. (archaic) A group of similar or related objects or items considered as a whole; a suite (of rooms etc.)

verb

1. (transitive) To make proper or suitable; to adapt or fit.
2. (said of clothes, hairstyle or other fashion item, transitive) To be suitable or apt for one's image.
   The ripped jeans didn't suit her elegant image.
   That new top suits you. Where did you buy it?
3. (transitive) To be appropriate or apt for.
   The nickname "Bullet" suits her, since she is a fast runner.
   c. 1700, Matthew Prior, epistle to Dr. Sherlock Raise her notes to that sublime degree / Which suits song of piety and thee.
   I'm going where the sun keeps shinin' […] / Going where the weather suits my clothes 1968, Fred Neil (lyrics and music), “Everybody's Talkin'”, performed by Harry Nilsson
4. (most commonly used in the passive form, intransitive) To dress; to clothe.
5. To please; to make content; to fit one's taste.
   He is well suited with his place.
   My new job suits me, as I work fewer hours and don't have to commute so much.
   This arrangement suited everybody - right up until the moment that it suddenly didn't, when unions were able to point a loaded gun at management's head in any disputes. November 16 2022, Nigel Harris, “Endless news... little context”, in RAIL, number 970, page 3
6. (intransitive) To agree; to be fitted; to correspond (usually followed by to, archaically also followed by with)