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[Middle English warderobe, from Old North French : warder, to guard + robe, garment; see robe.]
Financial institution. As its name suggests, the wardrobe was originally the place in which the king's robes were placed for safe keeping, and where cash was held from which the king's personal expenses might be paid. The keeper of the wardrobe was also the treasurer of the household; he received moneys for its upkeep, checked the accounts of its departments, and rendered them to the Exchequer. The wars of Edward I and his successors boosted the wardrobe's significance further by making it the equivalent of a war treasury which travelled with the campaigning king. Subsequent rulers, however, continued to use the wardrobe for both regular household and military expenses although the Yorkist and early Tudor kings placed greater emphasis on the chamber for their private and ‘secret’ expenses.
The noun has 3 meanings:
Meaning #1:
a tall piece of furniture that provides storage space for clothes; has a door and rails or hooks for hanging clothes
Synonyms: closet, press
Meaning #2:
collection of clothing belonging to one person
Meaning #3:
collection of costumes belonging to a theatrical company
A wardrobe (sometimes called an "armoire") is a cabinet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accommodation was provided for the sumptuous apparel of the great. The name of wardrobe was then given to a room in which the wall-space was filled with cupboards and lockers, the drawer being a comparatively modern invention. From these cupboards and lockers the modern wardrobe, with its hanging spaces, sliding shelves and drawers, evolved slowly.
In its movable form as an oak "hanging cupboard" it dates back to the early 17th century. For probably a hundred years such pieces, massive and cumbrous in form, but often with well-carved fronts, were produced in moderate numbers; then the gradual diminution in the use of oak for cabinet-making produced a change of fashion.
Walnut succeeded oak as the favourite material for furniture, but hanging wardrobes in walnut appear to have been made very rarely, although clothes presses, with drawers and sliding trays, were frequent.
During a large portion of the 18th century the tallboy was much used for storing clothes.
In the nineteenth century the wardrobe began to develop into its modern form, with a hanging cupboard at each side, a press in the upper part of the central portion and drawers below. As a rule it was often of mahogany, but as satinwood and other hitherto scarce finely grained foreign woods began to be obtainable in considerable quantities, many elaborately and even magnificently inlaid wardrobes were made.
Where Chippendale and his school had carved, Sheraton, Hepplewhite and their contemporaries achieved their effects by the artistic employment of deftly contrasted and highly polished woods.
The first step in the evolution of the wardrobe was taken when the central doors, which had previously enclosed merely the upper part, were carried to the floor, covering the drawers as well as the sliding shelves, and were often fitted with mirrors.
Bedroom armoires of today are often made by machines and designed to be assembled by the shopper.[1]
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
n. - garderobe, klædeskab, tøj
Nederlands (Dutch)
garderobe, klerenkast, hangkast, iemands kleding
Français (French)
n. - garde-robe, armoire, (Théât) costumes
Deutsch (German)
n. - Garderobe, Kostüme, Kleiderschrank
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ιματιοθήκη, ντουλάπα, ενδυματολόγιο, γκαρνταρόμπα
Português (Portuguese)
n. - guarda-roupas (m)
Español (Spanish)
n. - guardarropa, vestuario, armario, ropero
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - garderob
中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
衣橱, 全部衣服, 衣室
中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 衣櫥, 全部衣服, 衣室
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 옷장, (갖고 있는) 의류, 무대 의상
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 衣裳だんす, 持ち衣裳, ワードローブ, 持ち衣装
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) خزانه الثياب, حجرة الملابس, جميع ملابس المر أو الفرقه, حقيبه ضخمه, دائرة الملابس أو الحلى
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ארון-בגדים, מלתחה
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| n style fashion wardrobe | portable wardrobe closet |
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wardrobe". Read more |
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| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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