uniform
nounEtymology Borrowed from Middle French uniforme, from Latin uniformis.
1
A distinctive outfit that serves to identify members of a group, company, prison inmates, etc.
- The Hooverette [housedress] can be worn as a dress or as an apron. This is the latest in uniforms, madam, according to Vogue.1932, Elmer Wheeler, Tested Selling Sentences (the Language of the Brain): Master Book:
- ‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”.[…]’.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
2 more examples
- F. W. Robertson There are many things which a soldier will do in his plain clothes which he scorns to do in his uniform.
- Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16.[…]There are no inspectors, no exams until the age of 18, no school league tables, no private tuition industry, no school uniforms. […]2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:
2
Alternative letter-case form of Uniform from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.
International standards
3
Government, Law enforcement A uniformed police officer (as opposed to a detective).
- Skeletor held the gun against Speedo’s head, held Speedo between himself and the cops who stood, motionless and futile, where they’d stopped. Robinson, Lindfors, Carter, three uniforms and I watched helpless as Skeletor, dragging Speedy with him, inched out the gate, started backing down the hill.1996, S. J. Rozan, Concourse, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 265:
- Four men flew out of it, three uniforms and one in what appeared to be an English riding outfit—boots, whip, the whole nine yards. […] He called out, “I’m the superintendent of police.”2001, Christine Wiltz, The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld, Da Capo Press, →ISBN, page 113:
1 more example
- Eyes to the front now and there was the body, a lump of black and brown. Moon counted three uniforms and a photographer, the medical examiner and his assistant.2004, Will Christopher Baer, Penny Dreadful, MacAdam/Cage Publishing, →ISBN, page 81:
4
Computer graphics, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences In OpenGL, a global shader variable whose value does not change between rendering calls, serving as a parameter.
- 2009, Randi J. Rost, Bill Licea-Kane, Dan Ginsburg, OpenGL Shading Language Hence, uniforms of the same name in a vertex and fragment program will be the same uniform variable. Uniforms cannot be written to in a shader. This is sensible because an array of processors may be sharing the same resources […]
- Derived terms
- full dress uniform, mess uniform, school uniform, tango uniform, uniformless, uniform queen