diaper

[ dahy-per, dahy-uh-per ]

/ ˈdaɪ pər, ˈdaɪ ə pər /

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noun

a piece of cloth or other absorbent material folded and worn as underpants by a baby not yet toilet-trained.

Also called diaper cloth . a linen or cotton fabric with a woven pattern of small, constantly repeated figures, as diamonds.

Also called diaper pattern. such a pattern, originally used in the Middle Ages in weaving silk and gold.

verb (used with object)

to put a diaper on.

to ornament with a diaperlike pattern.

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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 + Medieval Greek áspros white

OTHER WORDS FROM diaper

un·dia·pered, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use diaper in a sentence

The story stank, of course — the Sex Pistols had played nowhere near us and they had broken up when we were in diapers — but we were only 13 or 14 and wanted to believe it.
My Friend, the Murderer|Eugene Robinson|November 24, 2020|Ozy
He’s got three children at home, the youngest still in diapers, which he is changing for the first time in his parenthood.
All the president’s ‘Guys’|Ben Terris|November 19, 2020|Washington Post
Police said the 11-year-old boy told detectives he was required to clean the house and do laundry and change his siblings’ diapers at night while his mother and her partner slept.
After mother, partner are charged in toddler’s death, D.C. police say siblings were also abused|Peter Hermann|November 11, 2020|Washington Post
BJ worried all summer about having to put a diaper on her adult son.
He Has a Developmental Disability and Needs a Caretaker. The State Suggested Diapers Instead.|by Amy Silverman for Arizona Daily Star|November 6, 2020|ProPublica

So when a manager from Arizona’s Division of Developmental Disabilities called his mother to suggest she put Drew in adult diapers to save the state the cost of overnight caregivers, she was outraged.
He Has a Developmental Disability and Needs a Caretaker. The State Suggested Diapers Instead.|by Amy Silverman for Arizona Daily Star|November 6, 2020|ProPublica
Hence arose the universal and admirable system of the diapered or chequered background of early ornamental art.
The Stones of Venice, Volume III (of 3)|John Ruskin
The girdles sometimes were broad bands of silk diapered with gold thread, of which manufacture specimens remain to us.
English Costume|Dion Clayton Calthrop
The faade has a rich late Gothic doorway, and the face of the wall is diapered all over with what look like pointed nail-heads.
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain|George Edmund Street
The field is of gold, diapered, and upon this a succession of subjects is embroidered.
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain|George Edmund Street
Fig. 103 is an octagon plate, with an exquisitely flowered and diapered border, from the collection of Miss Wyman, of Cambridge.
Pottery and Porcelain, from early times down to the Philadelphia exhibition of 1876|Charles Wyllys Elliott

British Dictionary definitions for diaper

diaper

/ (ˈdaɪəpə) /

noun

US and Canadian a piece of soft material, esp towelling or a disposable material, wrapped around a baby in order to absorb its excrementAlso called (in Britain and certain other countries): nappy

a woven pattern on fabric consisting of a small repeating design, esp diamonds
fabric having such a pattern
such a pattern, used as decoration

verb

(tr) to decorate with such a pattern

Word Origin for diaper

C14: from Old French diaspre, from Medieval Latin diasprus made of diaper, from Medieval Greek diaspros pure white, from dia- + aspros white, shining

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

diaper

Origin of diaper

OTHER WORDS FROM diaper

Words related to diaper

How to use diaper in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for diaper

Word Origin for diaper