— apronlike , adj.
/ay"preuhn/ , n.
1. a garment covering part of the front of the body and tied at the waist, for protecting the wearer's clothing: a kitchen apron.
2. Anglican Ch. a similar garment extending to the knees, worn by bishops, deans, and archdeans.
3. a metal plate or cover, usually vertical, for a machine, mechanism, artillery piece, etc., for protecting those who operate it.
4. a continuous conveyor belt for bulk materials, consisting of a chain of steel plates.
5. (in a lathe) a part of the carriage holding the clutches and gears moving the toolholder.
6. a paved or hard-packed area abutting an airfield's buildings and hangars, where planes are parked, loaded, or the like.
7. a broad paved area used for parking cars, as at the end of a driveway.
8. Civ. Eng.
a. any device for protecting a surface of earth, as a riverbank, from the action of moving water.
b. a platform to receive the water falling over a dam.
9. the part of a stage floor in front of the curtain line.
10. Furniture. skirt (def. 6).
11. the outer border of a green of a golf course.
12. the part of the floor of a boxing ring that extends outside the ropes.
13. Also called skirt . a flat, broad piece of interior window trim immediately beneath the sill. See diag. under double-hung .
14. a strip of metal set into masonry and bent down to cover the upper edge of flashing; counterflashing.
15. the open part of a pier for loading and unloading vessels.
16. Naut. (in a wooden vessel) a piece reinforcing the stem on the after side and leading down to the deadwood.
17. Geol. a deposit of gravel and sand at the base of a mountain or extending from the edges of a glacier.
18. the frill of long hairs on the throat and chest of certain long-haired dogs, as the collie.
19. a structure erected around another structure, as for reinforcement or decoration: a high fence surrounded by a wire apron buried in the ground.
v.t.
20. to put an apron on; furnish with an apron.
21. to surround in the manner of an apron: The inner city is aproned by low-cost housing.
[ 1275-1325; 1925-30 for def. 6; 1900-05 for def. 8; ME napron (by later misconstruing a napron as an apron ) naperon, equiv. to nape tablecloth ( mappa napkin; cf. MAP) + -ron dim. suffix ]