pinafore

American  

[pin-uh-fawr, -fohr] / ˈpɪn əˌfɔr, -ˌfoʊr /

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.

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pinafore British  

/ ˈpɪnəˌfɔː /

noun

1. an apron, esp one with a bib

2. short for pinafore dress

3. an overdress buttoning at the back

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Etymology

Origin of pinafore

First recorded in 1775–85; 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.

From BBC

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

From Los Angeles Times

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

From Literature

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.”

From Washington Post

In photos I saw when she was a kid and I was a kid, she looked like one of us, in pinafores and high pigtails, or Benetton sweaters and frizzy hair.

From Washington Post

Related Words

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