suit Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a set of garments (usually including a jacket and trousers or skirt) for outerwear all of the same fabric and color
    suit of clothes.
    • they buried him in his best suit
  2. noun a comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy
    case; cause; causa; lawsuit.
    • the family brought suit against the landlord
  3. noun (slang) a businessman dressed in a business suit
    • all the suits care about is the bottom line
  4. noun a man's courting of a woman; seeking the affections of a woman (usually with the hope of marriage)
    wooing; courtship; courting.
    • its was a brief and intense courtship
  5. noun a petition or appeal made to a person of superior status or rank
  6. noun playing card in any of four sets of 13 cards in a pack; each set has its own symbol and color
    • a flush is five cards in the same suit
    • in bridge you must follow suit
    • what suit is trumps?
  7. verb be agreeable or acceptable to
    accommodate; fit.
    • This suits my needs
  8. verb be agreeable or acceptable
    • This time suits me
  9. verb accord or comport with
    beseem; befit.
    • This kind of behavior does not suit a young woman!
  10. verb enhance the appearance of
    become.
    • Mourning becomes Electra
    • This behavior doesn't suit you!

WordNet

Suit noun
Etymology
OE. suite, F. suite, OF. suite, sieute, fr. suivre to follow, OF. sivre; perhaps influenced by L. secta. See Sue to follow, and cf. Sect, Suite.
Definitions
  1. The act of following or pursuing, as game; pursuit. Obs.
  2. The act of suing; the process by which one endeavors to gain an end or an object; an attempt to attain a certain result; pursuit; endeavor.
    Thenceforth the suit of earthly conquest shone. Spenser.
  3. The act of wooing in love; the solicitation of a woman in marriage; courtship.
    Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend, Till this funereal web my labors end. Pope.
  4. (Law) The attempt to gain an end by legal process; an action or process for the recovery of a right or claim; legal application to a court for justice; prosecution of right before any tribunal; as, a civil suit; a criminal suit; a suit in chancery.
    I arrest thee at the suit of Count Orsino. Shak.
    In England the several suits, or remedial instruments of justice, are distinguished into three kinds -- actions personal, real, and mixed. Blackstone.
  5. That which follows as a retinue; a company of attendants or followers; the assembly of persons who attend upon a prince, magistrate, or other person of distinction; -- often written suite, and pronounced swet.
  6. Things that follow in a series or succession; the individual objects, collectively considered, which constitute a series, as of rooms, buildings, compositions, etc.; -- often written suite, and pronounced swet.
  7. A number of things used together, and generally necessary to be united in order to answer their purpose; a number of things ordinarily classed or used together; a set; as, a suit of curtains; a suit of armor; a suit of clothes. "Two rogues in buckram suits." Shak.
  8. (Playing Cards) One of the four sets of cards which constitute a pack; -- each set consisting of thirteen cards bearing a particular emblem, as hearts, spades, cubs, or diamonds.
    To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort Her mingled suits and sequences. Cowper.
  9. Regular order; succession. Obs.
    Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again. Bacon.
    10. [From def. 7, someone who dresses in a business suit, as contrasted with more informal attire] A person, such as business executive, or government official, who is apt to view a situation formalistically, bureaucratically, or according to formal procedural ctriteria; -- used derogatively for one who is inflexible, esp. when a more humanistic or imaginative approach would be appropriate.
Suit transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Suited; present participle & verbal noun Suiting
Definitions
  1. To fit; to adapt; to make proper or suitable; as, to suit the action to the word. Shak.
  2. To be fitted to; to accord with; to become; to befit.
    Ill suits his cloth the praise of railing well. Dryden.
    Raise her notes to that sublime degree Which suits song of piety and thee. Prior.
  3. To dress; to clothe. Obs.
    So went he suited to his watery tomb. Shak.
  4. To please; to make content; as, he is well suited with his place; to suit one's taste.
Suit intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To agree; to accord; to be fitted; to correspond; -- usually followed by with or to.
    The place itself was suiting to his care. Dryden.
    Give me not an office That suits with me so ill. Addison.
    Syn. -- To agree; accord; comport; tally; correspond; match; answer.

Webster 1913