Word.ws English Dictionary

nappy

/ˈnæpi/

nappy noun: an absorbent garment worn by a baby or toddler who does not yet have voluntary control of their bladder and bowels or by someone who is incontinent; a diaper.

nappy: an absorbent garment worn by a baby or toddler who does not yet have voluntary control of their...
Image: Kyle Peyton, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

nappy (plural nappies)

  1. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, UK) An absorbent garment worn by a baby or toddler who does not yet have voluntary control of their bladder and bowels or by someone who is incontinent; a diaper.
    • You will notice that disposable nappies are sold in boy and girl versions. They vary in where the thickest padding is provided.1995, Jennie Lindon, Lance Lindon, Leandra Negrini, Caring for Young Children, page 60
    • Other equipment required was soap for hand washing and washing of nappies, a washing line for the drying of nappies,[…].2005, Medical Association of Malawi, “Malawi Medical Journal: The Journal of Medical Association of Malawi”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 17, page 39
    Synonyms:
    diaper, napkin

Verb

nappy (third-person singular simple present nappies, present participle nappying, simple past and past participle nappied)

  1. (transitive) To put a nappy on.
    • The mother nappied the baby.

Adjective (1)

nappy (comparative nappier, superlative nappiest)

  1. Having a nap (of cloth etc.); downy; shaggy.
    • The original accused device, as was the patented device, was made of cotton flannel with a nappy surface on each side, […] .1950, US District Courts, US Court of Claims, US Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, Federal Supplement, Volume 89, page 438
  2. (US, informal, offensive, sometimes) Of hair: tightly curled or twisted; frizzy (often specifically in reference to Afro textured hair)
    • They could scarcely bear their knowledge, nor could they have borne the sight of Rufus, but they knew why he was in the streets tonight, why he rode subways all night long, why his stomach growled, why his hair was nappy, his armpits funky, his pants and shoes too thin, and why he did not dare to...1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York, N. Y.: The Dial Press, published January 1963, page 4
    • We would talk about each other′s ugly, big lips and flat noses. We would call each other pickaninnies and nappy-haired so-and-so′s.1987, Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography, page 30
  3. (rare) Inclined to sleep; sleepy.
    • After supper I felt nappy and dropped right off to sleep.1930, Hubert Evans, H. E. M. Sellen, The Silent Call, page 90

Noun (2)

nappy (plural nappies)

  1. A shallow, flat-bottomed earthenware or glass bowl with sloping sides.
    • Suppose you advertise a “five-inch glass nappy.” It doesn′t tell a reader anything — a woman especially. She can′t tell how big five inches are anyway ; but just say, “large imitation cut glass fruit saucers at thirty cents a dozen,” and get your packers ready.1902, Charles Austin Bates, The Art and Literature of Business, volume 4, page 328
    • The use of a glazed earthenware nesting-dish, or “nappy, ” 9 inches in diameter across the top, is strongly advised.1909, Milton Osman Jones, Guide to Successful Squab Raising, page 11

Adjective (2)

nappy (comparative nappier, superlative nappiest)

  1. Foamy; having a large head.
  2. Nervous, excitable.
    • ‘He's a mutton-fisted beggar; but the horse is a bit nappy, and young Roger'll be the man to keep him going at his fences.’1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 161
    • I do feel, however, that in talking lightheartedly of making rearing, pulling or nappy horses into useful members of equine society I am treading on very dangerous ground.1948, John Edward Hance, Better Horsemanship, page 73

Noun (3)

nappy (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A kind of strong ale; nappy ale.
    • Aw′ve seen when we′ve gyen iv a kind, freenly way / To be blithe ower a jug o′ good nappy1827, R. Charlton, Newcastle Improvements, in T. Thompson, et al. A Collection of Songs, Comic and Satirical, Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect, page 151
    • Weel do I mind that in a′ our neeborly meetings—bridals, christenings, lyke-wakes an′ the like,—we entertained ane anither wi′ rich nappy ale; […] . But the tea has put out the nappy; an′ I have remarked, that by losing the nappy we lost baith ghaists an′ fairies.1857, Hugh Miller, The Cruise of the Betsey, 2009, Echo Library, page 248

Adjective (3)

nappy (comparative nappier, superlative nappiest)

  1. (Scotland) Brittle.

nappy meaning in Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada

nappy in Hindi

nappy, diaper
लँगोट laṅgoṭ, लँगोटी laṅgoṭī

nappy in Malayalam

diaper, napkin
ചെറുതോർത്ത്, ശിശുക്കളുടെ ഉടുവസ്ത്രം, കുഞ്ഞുങ്ങളുടെ കൗപീനത്തുണി, ടവ്വൽ, തൂവാല, തോർത്ത്

nappy in Kannada

ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಕಟ್ಟುವ ಬಟ್ಟೆ, ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಕಟ್ಟುವಚೌಕ

Examples of nappy in a sentence

  • On the nappy was a simple message, IT'S A LOT EASIER TO PUT ON A CONDOM.2009, Chris Arnold, Ethical Marketing and The New Consumer, page 55:
  • She had decided to just cover her hair with a scarf because Aunt Bell was “old school” and Zollar did not want to have to explain why she had nappy hair.2010, Nadine George-Graves, Urban Bush Women: Twenty Years of African American Dance Theater, Community Engagement, and Working It Out...
  • Place a slice of pineapple in a fruit nappy, place on it a No. 10 cone of vanilla ice cream and pour over it a ladle of chop suey dressing, crowning it with a freshly opened lycher nut or a cherry.1914, Southern Pharmaceutical Journal, volume 7, page 626:
  • Note that it is possible that a horse is not in fact being nappy at all, but is suffering the onset of muscle disorders: it is up to the rider to interpret the signs correctly.2006, Karen Coumbe, Karen Bush, The Complete Equine Emergency Bible, page 151:

All 40 example sentences with nappy

Synonyms of nappy

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of nappy

Forms of nappy

Noun
pluralnappies
alternative formnappie
Verb
third-person singular presentnappies
present participlenappying
past participlenappied
pastnappied
Adjective
comparativenappier
superlativenappiest

Plural of nappy: nappies

Origin of nappy

A diminutive in -y. The base is probably napkin but possibly French nappe directly (note that napkin is already a diminutive).

From nap + -y.

From Middle English nap, from Old English hnæp, hnæpp, hnæpf (“cup, bowl”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnapp, from Proto-Germanic *hnappaz (“bowl, goblet, cup”). See hanaper.

Words formed from nappy

Phrases with nappy

15 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with nappy

11 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about nappy

What does nappy mean?
Nappy means an absorbent garment worn by a baby or toddler who does not yet have voluntary control of their bladder and bowels or by someone who is incontinent; a diaper.
What is nappy in Hindi?
Nappy in Hindi is लँगोट (laṅgoṭ), लँगोटी (laṅgoṭī). See Nappy meaning in Hindi.
How do you use nappy in a sentence?
On the nappy was a simple message, IT'S A LOT EASIER TO PUT ON A CONDOM.
What part of speech is nappy?
Nappy can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce nappy?
Nappy is pronounced /ˈnæpi/.
What is the plural of nappy?
The plural of nappy is nappies.

Words near nappy in the dictionary

  1. Nappo
  2. Nappos
  3. Napps
  4. nappuccino
  5. nappuccinos
  6. nappy
  7. nappy area
  8. nappy areas
  9. nappy bag
  10. nappy bags
  11. nappy bank

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nappy (page history and authors); लँगोट (Hindi) (page history and authors); nappy (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); nappy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-nappy.ogg, en-au-nappy.ogg.

Cite this entry: “nappy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nappy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.