diaper
Americannoun
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diapers
plural
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a piece of cloth or other absorbent material folded and worn as underpants by a baby not yet toilet-trained.
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Also called diaper cloth. a linen or cotton fabric with a woven pattern of small, constantly repeated figures, as diamonds.
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Also called diaper pattern. such a pattern, originally used in the Middle Ages in weaving silk and gold.
verb (used with object)
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diapers,
present (3rd person singular)
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diapered,
past participle, past
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diapering
present participle
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to put a diaper on.
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to ornament with a diaperlike pattern.
noun
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Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): nappy. a piece of soft material, esp towelling or a disposable material, wrapped around a baby in order to absorb its excrement
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a woven pattern on fabric consisting of a small repeating design, esp diamonds
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fabric having such a pattern
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such a pattern, used as decoration
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verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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diapersimple
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diaperssimple
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have diaperedperfect
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has diaperedperfect
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am diaperingprogressive
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are diaperingprogressive
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is diaperingprogressive
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have been diaperingperfect progressive
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has been diaperingperfect progressive
Past
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diaperedsimple
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had diaperedperfect
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was diaperingprogressive
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were diaperingprogressive
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had been diaperingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of diaper
1300–50; Middle English diapre < Anglo-French dia(s)p(r)e < Medieval Latin diasprus made of diaper < Medieval Greek díaspros pure white, equivalent to Greek di- di- 3 ( def. ) + Medieval Greek áspros white
Explanation
A diaper is what babies wear before they’re potty trained. It’s a white cloth or other disposable fabric that’s folded up between the baby’s legs to catch the poop and whatnot. Awwww, isn’t that cute? In many countries, a diaper is also called a "nappy.” A baby can wear a diaper, but you can also diaper a baby, which means to put a diaper on. The word diaper comes from an Old French root, diaspre meaning "ornamental cloth." Over time it also came to mean a "towel or napkin" and by the 1830s, it had the modern sense of a cloth used to swaddle a baby's bottom.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Both Gilliam, 44, and his wife, Judayah, 27, work full-time in Albuquerque, N.M.—he’s in government-vehicle sales, she’s a career counselor—and they split cooking, cleaning and diaper duties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
She would need to cut the umbilical cord herself and return to the hospital for care in a diaper, her fetus wrapped in towels and the cord hanging between her legs.
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
The state tapped a celebrity-filled Los Angeles nonprofit, Baby2Baby, to run the diaper giveaway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
"My daughter was wearing a diaper, they took it off," Amal says.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
“Wait, did you start wearing a diaper without telling me?”
From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
In April, the centers announced they would eliminate providing diapers, formula and meals — but reversed the decision amid objections.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
A state-run newspaper said the diapers tested positive for a substance called formamide.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
The maker of Scott paper towels, Cottonelle toilet paper and Huggies diapers now says it has made a breakthrough.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
At the beginning of this year, we wrapped him in diapers, since he no longer knew how to get outside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
The baby wore cloth diapers and nothing else.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
The diapered babies racing down the baseline to mom or dad?
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2025
Even our diapered kids went when it was potty time.
From Slate ● Jun. 10, 2021
The relationship is both greater and more primal, and it compares with the developmental strides that play out between mother and baby, and that help to turn a diapered mess into a normal, healthy person.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 10, 2020
Deckard remembers seeing the white bottle of Johnson’s Baby Powder on the changing table where her mother diapered her new sister.
From Reuters ● Dec. 14, 2018
There was Lancelot, no longer in armour but dressed in a magnificent velvet robe, scalloped and diapered.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
The other was a close friend, Stefanie Robinson, a paraprofessional who worked with students with severe disabilities, including those requiring help with feeding and diapering.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2024
Moreno said the school did not provide diapering assistance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2023
“It’s going to be useful to the diapering world,” says Conz Preti, parenting and health editor at the online news site Insider.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2021
The FDA’s June 1985 risk assessment relied upon a decade-old letter from the company for the agency’s estimate of the amount of dust babies were exposed to during diapering.
From Reuters ● Dec. 3, 2019
I want a little châlet of wood and plaster walls, the wooden beams showing and the white square of plaster diapering the framework—like, I regret to say—Shakespeare's house—like old English sixteenth-century farmers' houses.
From Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions Volume 2 by Frank Harris
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
