pinafore
Americannoun
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a child's apron, usually large enough to cover the dress and sometimes trimmed with flounces.
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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.
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Chiefly British.
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a large apron worn by adults.
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a sleeveless smock.
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noun
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an apron, esp one with a bib
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short for pinafore dress
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an overdress buttoning at the back
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pinafore
Explanation
A little girl in a British novel might wear a pinafore — a white, apron-like garment worn over a dress — but you probably won't see pinafores on the runways. The word pinafore, designating a sleeveless child's dress worn over other clothing, has moved on from its original meaning, which can still be seen lurking in the word itself. It was originally a protective apron "pinned afore," or over, one's clothes. These days, a pinafore is primarily worn by a young girl, and in Britain it's called a pinny for short.
Vocabulary lists containing pinafore
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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:
On one trip, then 6-year-old Bridget won a Laura look-alike contest in a handmade pinafore and bonnet sewn by her grandmother.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
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 ● Apr. 1, 2025
“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 ● Dec. 24, 2024
It looked like old lady clothes, but also the pinafore type of things.
From New York Times ● May 4, 2022
I looked down at my torn, dirt-stained pinafore.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
We met her surrounded by piles of jumpers, pinafores and donated warm coats.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2022
Gingham and prints of island life added girlish charm to the relaxed shapes, which included pieces like pinafores, low-slung shorts and men's style shirts.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2012
Manhattan was a Darwinian environment...Merrill would see schoolchildren on Park Avenue, golden-haired cherubim in pinafores and Peter Pan collars, and she would think: These are the offspring of killers.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2012
The girls wear white pinafores, allowing Sargent to show off his precocious mastery of a full range of tones created by the fabric’s folds and creases.
From Washington Post
Mama had sewn red velvet dresses with white eyelet pinafores for Mia and me.
From "Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina" by Michaela DePrince
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.
