Definition of "chaperon" [chap•er•on]

• A person, especially an older or married woman, who accompanies a young unmarried woman in public. (noun)
• An older person who attends and supervises a social gathering for young people. (noun)
• A guide or companion whose purpose is to ensure propriety or restrict activity: "to see and feel the rough edges of the society . . . without the filter of official chaperones” ( Philip Taubman). (noun)
• To act as chaperon to or for. See Synonyms at accompany. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "She was a typical May-term chaperon, always pleasant, always hungry, and always tired."
• "French noun 'chaperon' - protector - and it is first recorded in Jane Austen's novel Sense And Sensibility,"
• "French noun 'chaperon' - protector - and it is first recorded in Jane Austen's novel Sense And Sensibility, murder Ashleigh Hall has referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints"