farthingale

1. (historical) A hooped structure in cloth worn to extend the skirt of women's dresses; a hooped petticoat.Examples: "women […] make trunk-sleeves of wyre and whale-bone bodies, backes of lathes, and stiffe bumbasted verdugals, and to the open-view of all men paint and embellish themselves with counterfeit and borrowed beauties[…]."; "As I entered the room, the fire from the large square stove, where the logs were burning lustily, threw a red, flickering light through the wide-open door over the room, which was very deep, and furnished in the old style with high-backed Russia leather chairs, and one of those settees which were intended for farthingales and straight up-and-down positions."; "In Henry VIII's Great Hall, there were men in doublets and codpieces prancing up and down with women in farthingales."Synonyms: hoop skirthistorical