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)

Example Sentences

Durde was chaperoning a group of Warriors players on a trip to Texas when he got his big break.

From BBC

But that also marks a clear transformation in culinary programming from emphasizing the development of proficiency to encouraging consumption, and the fade-out of the shared cultural exploration Food Network once chaperoned.

From Salon

Fleetwood, my chaperone for the voyage, heaves his bloated and blistered trotters into a pan of water.

From Literature

“Yeah. Like, you’d come spend the night at my place. Then we could do the observation together. It would be totally safe and chaperoned by my dad. An important outing for the sake of science.”

From Literature

So her aunt and uncle tried to salvage the matchmaking with a chaperoned Chinese dinner.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• matron