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a washing or immersion of something, especially the body, in water, steam, etc., as for cleansing or medical treatment:
I take a bath every day. Give the dog a bath.
a quantity of water or other liquid used for this purpose:
running a bath.
a container for water or other cleansing liquid, as a bathtub.
a room equipped for bathing; bathroom:
The house has two baths.
a building containing rooms or apartments with equipment for bathing; bathhouse.
Often, baths. one of the elaborate bathing establishments of the ancients:
the baths of Caracalla.
Usually, baths. a town or resort visited for medical treatment by bathing or the like; spa.
a preparation, as an acid solution, in which something is immersed.
the container for such a preparation.
a device for controlling the temperature of something by the use of a surrounding medium, as sand, water, oil, etc.
Metallurgy.

the depressed hearth of a steelmaking furnace.
the molten metal being made into steel in a steelmaking furnace.

the state of being covered by a liquid, as perspiration:
in a bath of sweat.
to wash or soak in a bath.
take a bath, Informal. to suffer a large financial loss:
Many investors are taking a bath on their bond investments.
a Hebrew unit of liquid measure, equal to a quantity varying between 10 and 11 U.S. gallons (38 and 42 liters).
a city in Avon, in SW England: mineral springs.
a seaport in SW Maine.
Baath.
a socialist party of some Arab countries, especially Iraq and Syria.
Contemporary Examples

They realize that he is incapable of running a bath, let alone a country.
Morsi-less: Are Egyptians Done with the Muslim Brothers? Hussein Ibish June 30, 2013

“It is too bad you never got to enjoy a bath time with a little girl,” he wrote in one.
Horrifying ‘Little Girl Sex Cult’ Diane Dimond May 31, 2010

bath’s The Secret of Castle Cant is ranked No. 331,025 in book sales on Amazon’s site.
The Kids’ Author Who Loved Child Porn Winston Ross July 11, 2010

Dickie Sanders, 21, had tried various kinds of drugs before, but snorting “Cloud Nine” bath salts resulted in his death.
Rudy Eugene, Brian De Leon, and More Crazy ‘Bath Salt’ Freakouts Andrew Carter June 7, 2012

“He had a hard time accepting it, so he turned to bath salts,” she said.
Rudy Eugene, Brian De Leon, and More Crazy ‘Bath Salt’ Freakouts Andrew Carter June 7, 2012

Historical Examples

She had bought a dressing table, a number of cabinets, and a bath tub.
The Goose Man Jacob Wassermann

Give me a few minutes to take a bath and step into my clothes and then I’ll be on the job.
Her Father’s Daughter Gene Stratton-Porter

Then she turned on the water in the bathtub and took a bath.
Carolyn of the Corners Ruth Belmore Endicott

The white marble at the bottom of the bath was veined with a dreadful red.
Little Dorrit Charles Dickens

It is not for me to go to the bath; the bath will come to me.
In the Year 2889 Jules Verne and Michel Verne

noun (pl) baths (bɑːðz)
a large container, esp one made of enamelled iron or plastic, used for washing or medically treating the body related adjective balneal
the act or an instance of washing in such a container
the amount of liquid contained in a bath
run a bath, to turn on the taps to fill a bath with water for bathing oneself
(usually pl) a place that provides baths or a swimming pool for public use

a vessel in which something is immersed to maintain it at a constant temperature, to process it photographically, electrolytically, etc, or to lubricate it
the liquid used in such a vessel

verb
(Brit) to wash in a bath
noun
an ancient Hebrew unit of liquid measure equal to about 8.3 Imperial gallons or 10 US gallons
noun
a city in SW England, in Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority, Somerset, on the River Avon: famous for its hot springs; a fashionable spa in the 18th century; Roman remains, notably the baths; university (1966). Pop: 90 144 (2001) Latin name Aquae Sulis (ˈækwiːˈsuːlɪs)
n.

Old English bæð “immersing in water, mud, etc.,” also “quantity of water, etc., for bathing,” from Proto-Germanic *batham (cf. Old Norse bað, Middle Dutch bat, German bad), from PIE root *bhe- “to warm” (cf. Latin fovere “to foment”) + Germanic *-thuz suffix indicating “act, process, condition” (cf. birth, death). Original sense was of heating, not immersing in water. The city in Somerset, England (Old English Baðun) was so called from its hot springs. Bath salts attested from 1875 (Dr. Julius Braun, “On the Curative Effects of Baths and Waters”).

pan-Arab socialist party, founded by intellectuals in Syria in 1943, from Arabic ba’t “resurrection, renaissance.”

bath (bāth)
n. pl. baths (bāðz, bāths)

The act of soaking or cleansing the body or any of its parts, as in water.

The apparatus used in giving a bath.

The fluid used to maintain the metabolic activities of an organism.

Related Terms

take a bath

a Hebrew liquid measure, the tenth part of an homer (1 Kings 7:26, 38; Ezek. 45:10, 14). It contained 8 gallons 3 quarts of our measure. “Ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath” (Isa. 5:10) denotes great unproductiveness.

see:

take a bath
throw out the baby with the bath water