fitment

English

Etymology

From fit +‎ -ment.

Noun

fitment (countable and uncountable, plural fitments)

1. A thing fitted to another in order to accomplish a specific purpose.
   • 2009, Uri Tsoler, Handbook of Detergents, volume 121, page 300:

     Bottles also usually incorporate a fitment, which provides a pouring spout.

2. An item of permanent furniture or equipment.
   • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

     Poor Mole! The Life Adventurous was so new a thing to him, and so thrilling; and this fresh aspect of it was so tempting; and he had fallen in love at first sight with the canary-coloured cart and all its little fitments.

   • 1912, William Hope Hodgson, The Derelict:

     There might have been no planking beneath the mould, for all that our feet could feel. It gave under our tread with a spongy, puddingy feel. It covered the deck furniture of the old ship, so that the shape of each article and fitment was often no more than suggested through it.

   • 1984, A. H. Masterman, R. M. Boyce, Plumbing and Mechanical Services: A Textbook, page 150:

     A good sanitary fitment should be of the simplest possible design, constructed so as to be self-cleansing, and, as far as possible, free from any moving working parts.

3. The act of furnishing with fitments; an instance of such an act.
   • 1910, United States Supreme Court, United States Supreme Court reports, volumes 22-25:

     Upon such an indictment against the owner, charging him with fitting out the ship with intent to employ her in the illegal voyage, evidence is admissible, that he commanded, authorized, and superintended the fitment, through the instrumentality of his agents, without being personally present.

4. The proper positioning and orientation of a thing for it to serve its designed purpose.
   • 1885, Miguel de Cervantes, translated by John Ormsby, Don Quixote:

     He told Sancho to pick up the helmet, and he taking it in his hands said:
     "By God the basin is a good one, and worth a real of eight if it is worth a maravedis," and handed it to his master, who immediately put it on his head, turning it round, now this way, now that, in search of fitment, and not finding it he said, "Clearly the pagan to whose measure this famous head-piece was first forged must have had a very large head; but the worst of it is half of it is wanting."

5. (India) The categorisation of an employee, for the purpose of calculating salary or allowances.
   • 1969, India Supreme Court, Indian Factories and Labour Reports, volume 19:

     As already stated, the Wage Board had recommended revised wage scales, revised categories and fitment of workmen in their respective categories on the revised wage scales as from November 1, 1960.

6. (archaic) Something that suits or fits.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     I am, sir,
     The soldier that did company these three
     In poor beseeming; 'twas a fitment for
     The purpose I then follow'd.