pinafore

[pin-uh-fawr, -fohr]

noun

1. a child's apron, usually large enough to cover the dress and sometimes trimmed with flounces.

2. a woman's sleeveless garment derived from it, low-necked, tying or buttoning in the back, and worn as an apron or as a dress, usually over a blouse, a sweater, or another dress.

3. Chiefly British.

   1. a large apron worn by adults.

   2. a sleeveless smock.

pinafore

/ ˈpɪnəˌfɔː /

noun

1. an apron, esp one with a bib

2. short for pinafore dress

3. an overdress buttoning at the back

Word History and Origins

Origin of pinafore¹

First recorded in 1775–85; pin + afore

Word History and Origins

Origin of pinafore¹

C18: from _pin + _afore

Example Sentences

Simone Collins is sitting in her 18th century cottage in Pennsylvania, dressed in a black pilgrim pinafore with a wide collar, bouncing one of her four children on her lap.

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“I love the scale of the check. I thought it harked back to the original pinafore she wore in the first ‘Beetlejuice,’” says Atwood.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Ella noticed how Auriga kept smoothing her small pinafore and Aries kept stealing glances at Brigit.

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She designed shift dresses and pinafores, released soft bras that she dubbed “booby traps,” and helped popularize brightly colored tights, releasing the garment in exotic yellows, blues and reds instead of just the traditional black.

Read more on Washington Post

Here’s the appropriately macabre opening of Coleridge’s “The Crime of the Urchin Mary”: “It was an ancient crone who wrote / Silly rhymes for tots / Was stopped by a maid in a pinafore / With blood-red polkadots.”

Read more on Washington Post

Related Words

• apparel 
• attire 
• costume 
• ensemble 
• frock 
• garb 
• gown 
• robe 
• skirt 
• smock 
• suit 
• uniform 
• wardrobe