Meaning & use
stomacher
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablespecialist
A triangular or V-shaped, often richly decorated panel fitted into the front opening of a bodice in women's clothing from earlier centuries.
Grammar: Countable: a stomacher, two stomachers; mostly met in history and costume contexts.
Patterns
- a stomacher of silk
- pinned to the stomacher
The museum displays a silk gown with a jeweled stomacher pinned to the bodice.
She embroidered a floral stomacher for the costume drama.
In the portrait, the queen wears a stiff stomacher covered in pearls.
Word forms
| plural | stomachers |
|---|
Common combinations
- embroidered stomacher
- An embroidered stomacher gave the plain gown a touch of luxury.
- jeweled stomacher
- The duchess wore a jeweled stomacher to court.
- pin a stomacher
- The maid had to pin the stomacher carefully so it lay flat.
- stiffened stomacher
- A stiffened stomacher kept the front of the dress smooth.
- stomacher panel
- The stomacher panel was cut from the same brocade as the sleeves.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bodice front
- Bodice front is a modern descriptive phrase and does not imply the separate, decorative, pinned-in piece that a stomacher was.
- placard
- Placard is an older term for a similar chest panel, but it is much rarer and mostly found in fashion history texts.
- breastplate
- Breastplate names armor or, loosely, a decorative chest piece, while a stomacher is always cloth worn as part of a dress.
Word family
- stomach noun
- the base word, the part of the body the panel covered
Commonly confused: stomacher or stomach?
stomacher vs stomach
A stomach is the body organ; a stomacher is a piece of clothing, and the ending -er is easy to forget.
Practice
What is a stomacher?
Choose one answer.
A stomacher is a decorative chest and stomach panel in historical dress. It is not a medical device, apron or belt.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stomacher”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.