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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.

Use "chaperon" in a sentence
  • "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"