1. The prevailing style or custom, as in dress or behavior: out of fashion.
2. Something, such as a garment, that is in the current mode: a swimsuit that is the latest fashion.
3. The style characteristic of the social elite: a man of fashion.
4. 1. Manner or mode; way: Set the table in this fashion.
   2. A personal, often idiosyncratic manner: played the violin in his own curious fashion.
5. Kind or variety; sort: people of all fashions.
6. Shape or form; configuration.

1. To give shape or form to; make: fashioned a table from a redwood burl.
2. To train or influence into a particular state or character.
3. To adapt, as to a purpose or an occasion; accommodate.
4. Obsolete. To contrive.

after (or in) a fashion

1. In some way or other, especially to a limited extent: She sings after a fashion.

[Middle English facioun, from Old French façon, appearance, manner, from Latin factiō, factiōn-, a making, from factus, past participle of facere, to make, do.]

SYNONYMS   fashion, style, mode, vogue. These nouns refer to a prevailing or preferred manner of dress, adornment, behavior, or way of life at a given time. Fashion, the broadest term, usually refers to what accords with conventions adopted by polite society or by any culture or subculture: a time when long hair was the fashion. Style is sometimes used interchangeably with fashion, but like mode often stresses adherence to standards of elegance: traveling in style; miniskirts that were the mode in the late sixties. Vogue is applied to fashion that prevails widely and often suggests enthusiastic but short-lived acceptance: a video game that was in vogue a few years ago. See also synonyms at method.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.