A cravat is a wide piece of cloth, loosely folded, that men wear around the neck. Think of it as an older cousin of the necktie: broader, softer, more like a scarf that has been tucked in than like the long thin tie most men wear to work now. You still see cravats at some weddings, in old films, and on people who dress in a rather formal or old-fashioned way. Day to day, almost nobody in ordinary Taiwan or ordinary American life puts one on. The word itself is a little dressy. History hides in the name: French cravate meant “Croat,” because French fashion in the 1600s copied a linen scarf worn by Croatian soldiers. So a cravat is not just “a tie.” If you call a modern necktie a cravat, older speakers, especially in Britain, may let it pass; careful speakers keep them apart. There is also a rare verb, to cravat, meaning to put one on someone, but students will almost only meet the noun.