FURNISHING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does furnishing mean? 

• FURNISHING (noun)
  The noun FURNISHING has 3 senses:

1. (usually plural) accessory wearing apparel

2. (usually plural) the instrumentalities (furniture and appliances and other movable accessories including curtains and rugs) that make a home (or other area) livable

3. the act of providing a house or room with furniture and other removable items such as shelves, carpets, appliances, etc.

  Familiarity information: FURNISHING used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FURNISHING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(usually plural) accessory wearing apparel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

furnishing; trappings

Hypernyms ("furnishing" is a kind of...):

accessory; accouterment; accoutrement (clothing that is worn or carried, but not part of your main clothing)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(usually plural) the instrumentalities (furniture and appliances and other movable accessories including curtains and rugs) that make a home (or other area) livable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("furnishing" is a kind of...):

instrumentality; instrumentation (an artifact (or system of artifacts) that is instrumental in accomplishing some end)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "furnishing"):

appointment; fitting ((usually in the plural) furnishings and equipment (especially for a ship or hotel))

curtain; drape; drapery; mantle; pall (hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window))

article of furniture; furniture; piece of furniture (furnishings that make a room or other area ready for occupancy)

carpet; carpeting; rug (floor covering consisting of a piece of thick heavy fabric (usually with nap or pile))

Derivation:

furnish (provide or equip with furniture)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of providing a house or room with furniture and other removable items such as shelves, carpets, appliances, etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("furnishing" is a kind of...):

interior decorating; interior decoration (the trade or act of decorating the interior of a building or room, especially with regard to color combination, paint, fabrics, carpeting, etc.)

 Context examples 

But once get used to these slight blemishes and nothing could be more complete, for good sense and good taste had presided over the furnishing, and the result was highly satisfactory.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But beside all this, the bulk of our people supported themselves by furnishing the necessities or conveniences of life to the rich and to each other.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Ceaselessly active, head and hand, an intelligent machine, all that constituted him a man was devoted to furnishing that intelligence.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then they will have a child every year! and Lord help 'em! how poor they will be! I must see what I can give them towards furnishing their house. Two maids and two men, indeed!—as I talked of t'other day.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

As you will readily understand, a specialist who aims high is compelled to start in one of a dozen streets in the Cavendish Square quarter, all of which entail enormous rents and furnishing expenses.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“It's not a great deal towards the furnishing,” said Traddles, “but it's something. The table-cloths, and pillow-cases, and articles of that kind, are what discourage me most, Copperfield. So does the ironmongery—candle-boxes, and gridirons, and that sort of necessaries—because those things tell, and mount up. However, “wait and hope!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And Elizabeth, to do her justice, had, in the first ardour of female alarm, set seriously to think what could be done, and had finally proposed these two branches of economy, to cut off some unnecessary charities, and to refrain from new furnishing the drawing-room; to which expedients she afterwards added the happy thought of their taking no present down to Anne, as had been the usual yearly custom.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

A flattened, roughly triangular body resting upon the upper end of each kidney; it is one of the ductless glands furnishing internal secretions (epinephrine and norepinephrine from the medulla and steroid hormones from the cortex).

(Adrenal gland, NCI Thesaurus)

I was every day furnishing the court with some ridiculous story: and Glumdalclitch, although she loved me to excess, yet was arch enough to inform the queen, whenever I committed any folly that she thought would be diverting to her majesty.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)