wardrobe

Etymology

From Middle English warderobe, from Old Northern French warderoube, wardereube, northern variants of Old French garderobe, from garder (“to keep safe”) + robe. Subsequently influenced by various senses of garderobe as they developed in French.

noun

1. (obsolete) A room for keeping clothes and armor safe, particularly a dressing room or walk-in closet beside a bedroom.
2. (figurative) A governmental office or department in a monarchy which purchases, keeps, and cares for royal clothes.
3. (figurative) The building housing such a department.
4. (obsolete) Any closet used for storing anything.
5. A room for keeping costumes and other property safe at a theater; a prop room.
6. (figurative) The department of a theater, movie studio, etc which purchases, keeps, and cares for costumes; its staff; its room(s) or building(s).
7. A movable cupboard or cabinet designed for storing clothes, particularly as a large piece of bedroom furniture.
   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
8. A tall built-in cupboard or closet for storing clothes, often including a rail for coat-hangers, and usually located in a bedroom.
9. (figurative, uncommon) Anything that similarly stores or houses something.
   Now death... crams his store house to the top with bloud, Might I now and Andrea in one fight, Make vp thy wardroope Richer by a knight. 1605, 1st Pt. Jeronimo
10. The contents of a wardrobe: an individual's entire collection of clothing.
11. (figurative) Any collection of clothing.
12. (figurative, uncommon) Any collection of anything.
13. (obsolete) A private chamber, particularly one used for sleeping or (euphemistic) urinating and defecating.
14. (hunting, obsolete) Badger feces, particularly used in tracking game.

verb

1. (intransitive) To act as a wardrobe department, to provide clothing or sets of clothes.
   […] impressed with the quality of the talent and production, good wardrobing and speedy pacing. December 11 1954, Billboard, page 20
2. Ordering a clothing item online and returning it for a refund after having worn it.
   Wardrobing, the act of buying a nice piece of clothing, wearing it once, and returning it, is an $8.8 billion problem for the retail industry. 2015, Adam Toporek, Be Your Customer's Hero, AMACOM, page 195
3. Ordering multiple sizes of the same clothing item online and returning all but the one that fits best.
   Wardrobing is where people will order the same thing in three different sizes to see which one fits and then they return the other two, not realizing that those other two most of the time don’t go back on that retailer’s shelves. 2022-01-28, Katie Tarasov, “What really happens to Amazon returns”, in CNBC