Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - bath

~1 n plural baths 1 BrE a large long container that you fill with water and sit in to wash yourself; bathtub especially AmE  (run a bath (=make water flow into a bath)) 2 an act of washing your body in a bath  (After a week of camping, I really needed a bath. | have a bath BrE take a bath AmE)  (Do I have time to take a bath before we go out? | give sb a bath (=wash someone in a bath)) 3 a container full of liquid in which something is placed for a particular purpose  (Plunge the fabric into a bath of black dye.) 4 baths a) BrE old-fashioned a public building in which there is a swimming pool b) a public building where people could go in the past to wash themselves  (the Roman baths at Cirencester) 5 take a bath AmE informal to lose money, especially in a business deal  (We took a bath in the market over that stock.)  (- see also birdbath, bubble bath, hipbath, throw the baby out with the bath water throw1 (34), Turkish bath) ~2 v BrE 1 to wash someone in a bath; bathe1 (1) AmE 2 old-fashioned to wash yourself in a bath; bathe1 (1)  ( USAGE NOTE: BATH WORD CHOICE bathe, bath, have/take a bath, bathtub, have a swim, take/have a dip, swimming bath (s), sunbathe, bathroom You bathe (AmE) or more formally in British English, bath to get clean He baths/bathes every morning . However, you are more likely to say that you have a bath (BrE) or take a bath (AmE) I have/take a bath every day. The thing that you have/take a bath in is a bath (BrE) or bathtub (AmE). You bathe something gently to make it clean especially for medical reasons to bathe a cut/your eyes. In British English you say that you bath a baby or a sick person, in American English you bathe them. You also bathe (BrE) when you go swimming, though this meaning is no longer common to bathe in the sea (NOT take a bath in the sea). You are more likely to use have a swim or take/have a dip in the sea or a swimming pool. (A slightly old-fashioned way of saying swimming pool in British English is swimming bath.) You also sunbathe in the sun (NOT have a sun bath). Often you say that you are going to the bathroom especially in American English, not because you are going to have a bath, but as a polite way of saying that you are going to the toilet. SPELLING Note the spelling of bathing and bathed. These words can be formed from bath with the pronunciation $$$. But they can also be formed from bathe, with the pronunciation $$$ )