lapel
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of lapel
Explanation
A lapel is the front part of a jacket or suit coat that's folded back. Your jacket's lapel is connected to your collar. Fancy or dressy men's clothing tends to have lapels — the tuxedo you wear to your uncle's wedding might have a satin lapel, for example. The suits that businessmen (and often women) wear also have lapels. Lapels come in different shapes and widths, although they almost always have a buttonhole on the left side, originally intended for wearing a flower. These days only prom- and wedding-goers tend to stick a flower in their lapel.
Vocabulary lists containing lapel
Fallen Angels
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Nine Stories
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All My Sons
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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:
Iran players arrived in Tijuana on Sunday wearing gold-colored lapel pins on their jackets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
Gautam Tamboliya, a 21-year-old student from India’s Haryana state, carried India’s national flag and wore a lapel pin with an image of a cockroach on it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
Massie is a throwback libertarian who, in lieu of the standard lawmaker flag pin, wears on his lapel a national debt clock that he programmed himself.
From Slate ● May 19, 2026
With Trump’s planned attendance Saturday night at the Washington Hilton, some reporters have said they’ll wear pocket handkerchiefs or lapel pins prominently displaying the words of the First Amendment.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
Harry Burn, the youngest member of the state legislature, wore a red anti-suffrage rose on his lapel.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
“That means notch lapels, button cuffs and pants with belt loops, as opposed to peak lapels, French cuffs and side adjusters.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
He became a fixture on television news, wearing either military style tactical gear or a long, double-breasted green overcoat with wide lapels that critics said was meant to echo Nazi German military garb.
From Barron's ● Mar. 17, 2026
His collections often feature exaggerated hips, nipped-in waists through corsetry, oversized structured lapels, and sculptural collars.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2025
For each decade, extract the essential silhouette and then distinguish the characters with collars, colors, lapels, fabrics and the occasional really great sweater.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
The satin lapels of the tuxedo were threadbare but who would look at that when the suit fitted him so beautifully and the crease in his trousers was so perfect?
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
