pinafore
/ˈpɪ.nəˌfɔ(ɹ)/
pinafore noun: a sleeveless dress, often similar to an apron, generally worn over other clothes, and most often worn by young girls as an overdress.
Noun
pinafore (plural pinafores)
- A sleeveless dress, often similar to an apron, generally worn over other clothes, and most often worn by young girls as an overdress.
- “He looks just like an angel,” said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks, and their clean white pinafores.1888, Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales
- She was a strangely thin girl in a dark pinafore, with a pink handkerchief tied over her hair.1917 September 20, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Feuille d’Album”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 223
Verb
pinafore (third-person singular simple present pinafores, present participle pinaforing, simple past and past participle pinafored)
- To dress in a pinafore.
pinafore meaning in Malayalam
pinafore in Malayalam
- ഒരുതരം ഉപരിവസ്ത്രം, ഒരിനം സ്ത്രീവസ്ത്രം
Examples of pinafore in a sentence
- The starched pinafore with the wide frills on each shoulder, which she always wore over her grey frock, was removed, and the frock itself changed for her best navy blue serge.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 55:
- The old man heaved himself from the chair, seized Jessamy by her pinafore frill and marched her to the house.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 84:
Forms of pinafore
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pinafores |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pinafores |
| present participle | pinaforing |
| past participle | pinafored |
| past | pinafored |
Origin of pinafore
Univerbation of pin + afore. The pinafore was originally pinned to the front of a dress, as it had no buttons.
Words formed from pinafore
Questions about pinafore
- What does pinafore mean?
- Pinafore means a sleeveless dress, often similar to an apron, generally worn over other clothes, and most often worn by young girls as an overdress.
- What is pinafore in Malayalam?
- Pinafore in Malayalam is ഒരുതരം ഉപരിവസ്ത്രം, ഒരിനം സ്ത്രീവസ്ത്രം. See Pinafore meaning in Malayalam.
- How do you use pinafore in a sentence?
- The starched pinafore with the wide frills on each shoulder, which she always wore over her grey frock, was removed, and the frock itself changed for her best navy blue serge.
- What part of speech is pinafore?
- Pinafore can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce pinafore?
- Pinafore is pronounced /ˈpɪ.nəˌfɔ(ɹ)/.
- What is the plural of pinafore?
- The plural of pinafore is pinafores.
Words near pinafore in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pinafore (page history and authors); pinafore (Malayalam 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-uk-pinafore.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pinafore.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pinafore. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.