Cos"tume` (k?s"t?m` ∨ k?s-t?m"), n. [F. costume, It. costume custom, dress, fr. L. consuetumen (not found), for consuetudo custom. See Custom, and cf. Consuetude.]
1.
Dress in general; esp., the distinctive style of dress of a people, class, or period.
2.
Such an arrangement of accessories, as in a picture, statue, poem, or play, as is appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described.
I began last night to read Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel . . . .I was extremely delighted with the poetical beauty of some parts . . . .The costume, too, is admirable.
Sir J. Mackintosh.
3.
A character dress, used at fancy balls or for dramatic purposes.
© Webster 1913.