apron

[ey-pruh n]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR apron ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a garment covering part of the front of the body and tied at the waist, for protecting the wearer's clothing: a kitchen apron.

Anglican Church. a similar garment extending to the knees, worn by bishops, deans, and archdeans.

a metal plate or cover, usually vertical, for a machine, mechanism, artillery piece, etc., for protecting those who operate it.

a continuous conveyor belt for bulk materials, consisting of a chain of steel plates.

(in a lathe) a part of the carriage holding the clutches and gears moving the toolholder.

a paved or hard-packed area abutting an airfield's buildings and hangars, where planes are parked, loaded, or the like.

a broad paved area used for parking cars, as at the end of a driveway.

Civil Engineering.

any device for protecting a surface of earth, as a riverbank, from the action of moving water.
a platform to receive the water falling over a dam.

the part of a stage floor in front of the curtain line.

Furniture. skirt(def 6).

the outer border of a green of a golf course.

the part of the floor of a boxing ring that extends outside the ropes.

Also called skirt. a flat, broad piece of interior window trim immediately beneath the sill.

a strip of metal set into masonry and bent down to cover the upper edge of flashing; counterflashing.

the open part of a pier for loading and unloading vessels.

Nautical. (in a wooden vessel) a piece reinforcing the stem on the after side and leading down to the deadwood.

Geology. a deposit of gravel and sand at the base of a mountain or extending from the edges of a glacier.

the frill of long hairs on the throat and chest of certain long-haired dogs, as the collie.

a structure erected around another structure, as for reinforcement or decoration: a high fence surrounded by a wire apron buried in the ground.

verb (used with object)

to put an apron on; furnish with an apron.

to surround in the manner of an apron: The inner city is aproned by low-cost housing.

Origin of apron

1275–1325; 1925–30 for def 6; 1900–05 for def 8; Middle English napron (by later misconstruing a napron as an apron) < Middle French naperon, equivalent to nape tablecloth (< Latin mappa napkin; cf. map) + -ron diminutive suffix

Related formsa·pron·like, adjectiveun·a·proned, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for apron

smock, cover, shield, pinafore

Examples from the Web for apron

Contemporary Examples of apron

An office manager, he says, was wearing an apron with Santa on it.
A Field General in the War on Christmas
David Freedlander
December 24, 2014
While caring for patients, clinical staff is heavily robed with gown and apron; three pairs of gloves; a hood; and goggles.
Two Americans Have Now Been Diagnosed With Ebola in Record Outbreak
Kent Sepkowitz
July 28, 2014
A housekeeper came out to buy some, wiping her hands on her apron.
Mexico City’s Magical Moment of Resurgence
Condé Nast Traveler
February 10, 2014
A Chinese mountaineer held a green raincoat over his waist like an apron, covering his nakedness.
Death on Killer Mountain
Amanda Padoan
July 6, 2013
Democrats' didn't get the allegiance of women by hectoring them, by saying take off that apron, GOP housewives, and join us.
Los Republicanos
Michael Tomasky
November 8, 2012

Historical Examples of apron

Tillie, at Mrs. McKee's, stood in the doorway and fanned herself with her apron.
K
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Dilly got briskly up and gathered a drawer-full of papers into her apron.
Tiverton Tales
Alice Brown
"David's harnessin' now," said Mary, beginning to untie her apron.
Meadow Grass
Alice Brown
Mrs. Pendleton hurried forward, wiping her hands on her apron as she went.
Meadow Grass
Alice Brown
Mistress Affery, with a suppressed cry, threw her apron over her head.
Little Dorrit
Charles Dickens

British Dictionary definitions for apron

apron

noun

a protective or sometimes decorative or ceremonial garment worn over the front of the body and tied around the waist

the part of a stage extending in front of the curtain line; forestage

a hard-surfaced area in front of or around an aircraft hangar, terminal building, etc, upon which aircraft can stand

a continuous conveyor belt composed usually of slats linked together

a protective plate screening the operator of a machine, artillery piece, etc

a ground covering of concrete or other material used to protect the underlying earth from water erosion

a panel or board between a window and a skirting in a room

geology a sheet of sand, gravel, etc, deposited at the front of a moraine

golf the part of the fairway leading onto the green

machinery the housing for the lead screw gears of a lathe

another name for skirt (def. 3)

tied to someone's apron strings dependent on or dominated by someone, esp a mother or wife

verb

(tr) to protect or provide with an apron

Word Origin for apron

C16: mistaken division (as if an apron) of earlier a napron, from Old French naperon a little cloth, from nape cloth, from Latin mappa napkin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for apron

mid-15c., faulty separation (cf. adder, umpire) of a napron (c.1300), from Old French naperon "small table-cloth," diminutive of nappe "cloth," from Latin mappa "napkin." Napron was still in use as recently as late 16c. The shift of Latin -m- to -n- was a tendency in Old French (e.g. conter from computare, printemps from primum, natte "mat, matting," from matta). Symbolic of "wife's business" from 1610s. Apron-string tenure was in reference to property held in virtue of one's wife, or during her lifetime only.

Even at his age, he ought not to be always tied to his mother's apron string. [Anne Brontë, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," 1848]

apron in Science

apron

[ā′prən]

An area covered by a blanketlike deposit of glacial, eolian, marine, or alluvial sediments, especially an area at the foot of a mountain or in front of a glacier.