---
title: "Corset"
description: "A corset is a close-fitting undergarment stiffened with boning and laced tight to shape the torso, especially the waist."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/corset
published: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# Corset

*A corset is a close-fitting undergarment stiffened with boning and laced tight to shape the torso, especially the waist.*

A corset shapes the body with vertical bones, once whalebone (baleen) and later steel, sewn into channels of strong cloth, and with lacing, usually at the back. Nineteenth-century corsets curved to the body with gores and a front busk, a flat steel fastening.

## How is it different from stays?

“Corset” became the usual English word in the nineteenth century. Earlier, stiffened bodices were called [stays](https://teazle.art/glossary/stays.md) and had a different, more conical shape.


## Sources

1. [Corset (AAT 300210582)](http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300210582). Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus
2. [Corset (Q180225)](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q180225). Wikidata

Canonical: https://teazle.art/glossary/corset