wrapper
Americannoun
-
wrappers
plural
-
a person or thing that wraps.
-
a covering or cover.
-
a long, loose outer garment.
-
a loose bathrobe; negligee.
-
British. book jacket.
-
the tobacco leaf used for covering a cigar.
-
Armor. a supplementary beaver reinforcing the chin and mouth area of an armet of the 15th century.
noun
-
the cover, usually of paper or cellophane, in which something is wrapped
-
a dust jacket of a book
-
the ripe firm tobacco leaf forming the outermost portion of a cigar and wound around its body
-
a loose negligee or dressing gown, esp in the 19th century
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of wrapper
late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75; see origin at wrap, -er 1
Explanation
A wrapper is any kind of loose cover that encloses something that's for sale. The brightly colored paper that covers your candy bar is a wrapper. If you wrap something in foil or plastic to sell it, you've made a wrapper. Many wrappers are factory-made and sealed, like the wrapper on your ice cream bar, while others protect your fast-food burger or deli sandwich. In some places, people call a dressing gown or robe a wrapper too. No matter how you use the word, a wrapper wraps something. Its earliest use, in the 15th century, was as "a piece of fine cloth used to wrap bread."
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:
One particularly unusual find was a Marathon-branded chocolate wrapper - the UK name for Snickers until 1990 - found during a clean-up several years ago.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
That has led some developers to hope that a prettier wrapper can help.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
By stripping away that maturity safety net, the ETF wrapper can leave investors with continuous exposure to interest-rate volatility and turn what’s designed to be an inflation shield into a more speculative market trade.
From MarketWatch ● May 27, 2026
Cutting back on the amount of chocolate while having the same kind of wrapper meant that customers were being misled, Bremen regional court ruled.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
"I saw three moose grazing close around the cave, but it was a good place. I saw a candy wrapper and knew you had camped there."
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
What most Americans own is the belief that falling rates fix everything, purchased in two wrappers.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
The ads featured pseudonymous home economist Sue Swanson, who promised that you purchased three TV Dinners and sent back the wrappers, Swanson would promptly mail you a “big silver dollar.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
Keep Wales Tidy said sweet wrappers, drinks containers and fast-food packaging were the most common types of litter found on kerbs.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
Curator Sandra Jackson-Dumont, former director and CEO of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, applauded Barrois’ use of gum wrappers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
I had never seen him in anything but the threadbare wrappers that were wound around his body when we visited him.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
