chaperone

American  

[shap-uh-rohn] / ˈʃæp əˌroʊn /

Or chaperon

noun

1. a person, usually a married or older woman, who, for propriety, accompanies a young unmarried woman in public or who attends a party of young unmarried men and women.

   Synonyms:

   escort

2. any adult present in order to maintain order or propriety at an activity of young people, as at a school dance.

3. a round headdress of stuffed cloth with wide cloth streamers that fall from the crown or are draped around it, worn in the 15th century.

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verb (used with object)

1. to attend or accompany as chaperone.

   Synonyms:

   escort

verb (used without object)

1. to act as chaperone.

Other Word Forms

• chaperonage
  noun
• chaperonless
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of chaperone

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Middle French: “hood, cowl,” equivalent to chape cape ¹ + -eron noun suffix; figurative sense from French (18th century)

Explanation

High school dances always have at least one chaperone to keep an eye on things. A chaperone is someone who looks after and supervises another person or a group of people. Chaperone can also be spelled chaperon, without the e. It originally meant a woman whose duty was to accompany a younger woman and make sure she wasn't harmed and didn't get into trouble, especially when she was with a man. These days, chaperone is most often used to describe an adult who supervises a group of kids or teenagers. The Old English meaning was "protective hood or head covering," and today the word chaperone retains that "protective" quality.

Example Sentences

After appearing in multiple national tours, including of "Grease," she made her Broadway debut in 2007 in "The Drowsy Chaperone" at the age of 60.

From Salon • Jan. 31, 2023

Chaperone, the exotic shotgun favored by controller players, will see its passive range buff reduced from 2 meters to 0.5 meters.

From The Verge • Feb. 3, 2022

The 1922 edition contained a chapter on “The Chaperon and Other Conventions”; by 1927 it had been retitled “The Vanishing Chaperone and Other New Conventions”; and by 1937, “The Vanished Chaperone and Other Lost Conventions.”

From Time • May 18, 2016

In addition to the Chaperone, HTC put a camera on the Vive headset: Double tap a button on your controller, and up pops the real world.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 5, 2016

I travel with Volpe and a group of students one night to see another high school perform a musical called The Drowsy Chaperone, a very good show with a really dumb title.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

Related Words

• matron