A towel is a piece of absorb cloth or paper used for drying or wiping. It draws wiktionary:moisture through direct contact using a blotting or rubbing motion. ==Types of towels== * A ''bath towel'' is used for drying one's body after bathing or showering. It is typically rectangular, with a typical size around 30"×60" (75×150 cm). Some are designed for use as bath mats. * A ''beach towel'' is usually a little bit larger than a bath towel. Although it is often used for drying off after being in the water, its chief purpose is to provide a surface to lie on. They are also worn for privacy while changing clothes in a public area, and for wiping sand from the body or objects. Beach towels often have colourful patterns printed or woven into them. * A ''hand towel'' is significantly smaller than a bath towel (perhaps 30x60 cm), and is used for drying one's hands after washing them. * A ''paper towel'' is a piece of paper that can be used once as a towel and then be disposed of. A perforated roll of paper towels is normally mounted on a rod a little longer than the width of the roll, or in an alternative type of hanger that has indentations on ears, the indentations fitting into the ends of the paper towel roll. Paper towels can also be found packaged like Kleenex tissues, as individual folded sheets. * A ''tea towel'' (British English) or ''dish towel'' (American English) is a cloth which is used to dry dishes, cutlery, etc., after they have been washed. The term ''kitchen towel'' can refer to either a dish towel or to a paper towel, the latter usage being primarily British. ==Alternative uses== Towels are often used for purposes other than drying things: * To sit, lie and stand on, to avoid direct contact with the ground, rock, chair, etc. This may be for hygiene and comfort, and in saunas or other places where nudity is common. * Barbers use steamed towels to prepare the skin for shaving. * To reserve seats, for example sunloungers, by the side of swimming pools or similar locations (a source of annoyance to some and amusement to others). * A towel can act as a make-shift garment or blanket. ==Pop culture trivia== ===''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''=== Towels played an iconic role in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (HHGG). They are described as the most "massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." The fictitious time/space traveller and Guide Researcher Ford Prefect (character) uses the idiom "a frood who really knows where his towel is" to mean someone generally alert and aware. In the HHGG universe, a hitchhiker who carries a towel can always find a ride, because if someone is carrying a towel, it is assumed (however illogically) that they also have a toothbrush, a bathroom kit, shower shoes, hair nets, maps, a toolbox, tickets to the opera, finely lapped silicone wafers, a set of encyclopedias, an astonishing array of credit cards, travellers checks, etc. For this reason, hitchhikers were directed by the Guide to always carry a towel to maintain the appearance that they would make a good guest. In addition, a towel can be used as a hammock, a blanket, or a cape. The corners of the towel can be soaked in vitamins, and useful bits of wire can be woven into the towel. The corners of a towel can also be tied together to make a bag. If wet, the towel can even be used in mele combat. You can use it to hide from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous). Some fans of Douglas Adams have seized on this idea, and towels are now considered a symbol of one's devotion to the Hitchhiker books, radio series, television series, H2G2, etc. Towel Day, is held each year in memory of Adams. See also List of uses for towels in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Image:Towelie.jpg|Towelie from ''South Park''.
Image:Terribletowel.png|A Terrible Towel.
===Other references===
*In the cartoon ''South Park'' a character named Towelie is a walking, talking towel that was artificially created in a lab for military/subversive purposes.
*Fans started using Terrible Towels in the 1970s to encourage the Pittsburgh Steelers as they sought (and Super Bowl X) an National Football League championship.
==See also==
*Toallagate
Textiles
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Linens
''Towels are usually provided in hotel and motel rooms for the guests to use.'' Actually, I suggest to remove this sentence. Towels are ''usually'' bought in shops and/or found in bathrooms, kitchens or beaches, which is too trivial to write it down. At least until someone finds out where towels ''really'' come from. Their existence in hotel rooms is not particularly relevant either. User:Ravn 15:54, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC) :Yeah, it's kind of an artifact from an earlier version, where there was copy about the theft of towels from hotel/motels. Without more material about where towels come from and are found, the sentence can go. I'll just delete it. User:GTBacchus 19:56, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC) ==??== Where on Earth did this come from? I've never heard such a thing: :''Note: unlike the above-mentioned items, a kitchen towel is not made of fabric but rather is a perforated roll of absorbent paper normally fixed to a wall-mounted horizontal rod a little longer than the width of the roll.'' Is this a British or Australian thing? It sure isn't American. If someone said "kitchen towel" to me, I'd assume he or she meant a dish towel. User:Jaknouse 00:20, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Sounds like what I've always called a "paper towel"... :User:GTBacchus 14:00, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) ** It's certainly a term used in Britain. Personally, though, I keep mine vertically. User:Average Earthman 10:40, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC) == "Cultural significance" == About a third of this article seems to be devoted to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. While this is entertaining, it does not seem to me that towel references in the Hitchhiker's Guide comprise anywhere near a third of the important information about this topic, and certainly not all of its "cultural significance." I think most people would agree that, much as we would like Wikipedia to be the Hitchhiker's Guide (or Encyclopedia Galactica, etc.), it isn't; it is about Earth. I am amused to see a supposedly serious encylopedia claiming that towels are soaked with vitamins for an emergency food source, but I believe that Ford Prefect is the only person (er, life form) to have done this. Let's be serious and rename the "cultural significance" section after what it's really about. Then, perhaps, someone will have something to say that is real rather than fictional.
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Towel:
Towel
Towel
Towel-owl_merger
Towel401
Towel401
Toweled_Crusader
Towelhead
Towelie
Towelie
Towels
Towel_Day
Towel_Day
Towel
A towel is a piece of absorb cloth or paper used for drying or wiping. It draws wiktionary:moisture through direct contact using a blotting or rubbing motion. ==Types of towels== * A ''bath towel'' is used for drying one's body after bathing or showering. It is typically rectangular, with a typical size around 30"×60" (75×150 cm). Some are designed for use as bath mats. * A ''beach towel'' is usually a little bit larger than a bath towel. Although it is often used for drying off after being in the water, its chief purpose is to provide a surface to lie on. They are also worn for privacy while changing clothes in a public area, and for wiping sand from the body or objects. Beach towels often have colourful patterns printed or woven into them. * A ''hand towel'' is significantly smaller than a bath towel (perhaps 30x60 cm), and is used for drying one's hands after washing them. * A ''paper towel'' is a piece of paper that can be used once as a towel and then be disposed of. A perforated roll of paper towels is normally mounted on a rod a little longer than the width of the roll, or in an alternative type of hanger that has indentations on ears, the indentations fitting into the ends of the paper towel roll. Paper towels can also be found packaged like Kleenex tissues, as individual folded sheets. * A ''tea towel'' (British English) or ''dish towel'' (American English) is a cloth which is used to dry dishes, cutlery, etc., after they have been washed. The term ''kitchen towel'' can refer to either a dish towel or to a paper towel, the latter usage being primarily British. ==Alternative uses== Towels are often used for purposes other than drying things: * To sit, lie and stand on, to avoid direct contact with the ground, rock, chair, etc. This may be for hygiene and comfort, and in saunas or other places where nudity is common. * Barbers use steamed towels to prepare the skin for shaving. * To reserve seats, for example sunloungers, by the side of swimming pools or similar locations (a source of annoyance to some and amusement to others). * A towel can act as a make-shift garment or blanket. ==Pop culture trivia== ===''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''=== Towels played an iconic role in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (HHGG). They are described as the most "massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." The fictitious time/space traveller and Guide Researcher Ford Prefect (character) uses the idiom "a frood who really knows where his towel is" to mean someone generally alert and aware. In the HHGG universe, a hitchhiker who carries a towel can always find a ride, because if someone is carrying a towel, it is assumed (however illogically) that they also have a toothbrush, a bathroom kit, shower shoes, hair nets, maps, a toolbox, tickets to the opera, finely lapped silicone wafers, a set of encyclopedias, an astonishing array of credit cards, travellers checks, etc. For this reason, hitchhikers were directed by the Guide to always carry a towel to maintain the appearance that they would make a good guest. In addition, a towel can be used as a hammock, a blanket, or a cape. The corners of the towel can be soaked in vitamins, and useful bits of wire can be woven into the towel. The corners of a towel can also be tied together to make a bag. If wet, the towel can even be used in mele combat. You can use it to hide from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous). Some fans of Douglas Adams have seized on this idea, and towels are now considered a symbol of one's devotion to the Hitchhiker books, radio series, television series, H2G2, etc. Towel Day, is held each year in memory of Adams. See also List of uses for towels in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Towel
''Towels are usually provided in hotel and motel rooms for the guests to use.'' Actually, I suggest to remove this sentence. Towels are ''usually'' bought in shops and/or found in bathrooms, kitchens or beaches, which is too trivial to write it down. At least until someone finds out where towels ''really'' come from. Their existence in hotel rooms is not particularly relevant either. User:Ravn 15:54, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC) :Yeah, it's kind of an artifact from an earlier version, where there was copy about the theft of towels from hotel/motels. Without more material about where towels come from and are found, the sentence can go. I'll just delete it. User:GTBacchus 19:56, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC) ==??== Where on Earth did this come from? I've never heard such a thing: :''Note: unlike the above-mentioned items, a kitchen towel is not made of fabric but rather is a perforated roll of absorbent paper normally fixed to a wall-mounted horizontal rod a little longer than the width of the roll.'' Is this a British or Australian thing? It sure isn't American. If someone said "kitchen towel" to me, I'd assume he or she meant a dish towel. User:Jaknouse 00:20, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Sounds like what I've always called a "paper towel"... :User:GTBacchus 14:00, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) ** It's certainly a term used in Britain. Personally, though, I keep mine vertically. User:Average Earthman 10:40, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC) == "Cultural significance" == About a third of this article seems to be devoted to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. While this is entertaining, it does not seem to me that towel references in the Hitchhiker's Guide comprise anywhere near a third of the important information about this topic, and certainly not all of its "cultural significance." I think most people would agree that, much as we would like Wikipedia to be the Hitchhiker's Guide (or Encyclopedia Galactica, etc.), it isn't; it is about Earth. I am amused to see a supposedly serious encylopedia claiming that towels are soaked with vitamins for an emergency food source, but I believe that Ford Prefect is the only person (er, life form) to have done this. Let's be serious and rename the "cultural significance" section after what it's really about. Then, perhaps, someone will have something to say that is real rather than fictional.
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
T
TA | TB | TC | TD | TE | TF | TG | TH | TI | TJ | TK | TL | TŁ | TM | TN | TO | TP | TR | TS | TU | TW | TX | TY | TZ |Words begining with Towel:
Towel
Towel
Towel-owl_merger
Towel401
Towel401
Toweled_Crusader
Towelhead
Towelie
Towelie
Towels
Towel_Day
Towel_Day
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