a|pron

a|pron «AY pruhn, -puhrn», noun, verb.

–n.

1. a garment worn over the front part of the body to cover or protect clothes: »

a kitchen apron, a carpenter's apron.

2. an area in front of an airport terminal or hangar on which to park aircraft.

3. the area of a stage in front of the curtain.

4. a) a protective structure or layer of material to prevent the washing away of a surface, such as a riverbank, by water. b) a platform at the bottom of a sluice to intercept the fall of water.

5. a kind of flat conveyor belt.

6. a protective sheet or plate of metal on certain parts of guns, roofs, or machines.

7. a sheet of sand and gravel in front of a glacial moraine.

8. a leather covering for the legs in certain types of open vehicles.

9. a thick mass of skin on the chest of a ram.

–v.t.

to provide with or as if with an apron: »

Then he aproned me again, stropped his razor, and whipped up a lather (New Yorker).

╂[misdivision of Middle English (a) naperon < Old French naperon (diminutive) < nape < Latin mappa napkin]

–a´pron|like´, adjective.