apron

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A garment, usually fastened in the back, worn over all or part of the front of the body to protect clothing.
2. n. Something, such as a protective shield for a machine, that resembles this garment in appearance or function.
3. n. The paved strip in front of and around airport hangars and terminal buildings.
4. n. The part of a stage in a theater extending in front of the curtain.
5. n. A platform, as of planking, at the entrance to a dock.
6. n. A covering or structure along a shoreline for protection against erosion.
7. n. A platform serving a similar purpose below a dam or in a sluiceway.
8. n. A continuous conveyor belt.
9. n. An area covered by sand and gravel deposited at the front of a glacial moraine.
10. n. A border of slightly longer grass that surrounds a green on a golf course.
11. n. The part of a boxing ring floor that extends beyond the ropes.
12. v. To cover, protect, or provide with an apron.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. . A piece of apparel made in various ways for covering the front of the person more or less completely. It is ordinarily used while at work to keep the clothes clean or protect them from injury, for which purpose it is made of cotton or linen, or for blacksmiths, shoemakers, etc., of leather. Aprons of silk or other fine material are sometimes worn by ladies as an article of dress or for ornament. An apron is also part of certain official costumes, as that of an English bishop, and that of freemasons and of members of other secret or friendly societies.
2. n. . Anything resembling an apron in shape or use. The leather covering used to protect the lower part of the person while riding in an open carriage. A rectangular sheet of lead with a conical projection on the under side, used to cover the vent in heavy guns and field-pieces. Also called cap. A platform or flooring of plank at the entrance of a dock; the sill. In carpentry, the sill or lower part of a window. A strip of lead which directs the drip of a wall into a gutter. A piece of leather or boarding used to conduct loose moving material past an opening, as grain in a separator. Sheets of lead, or flashing, placed about skylights and at the intersection of dormer windows with the roof. The fat skin covering the belly of a goose. [Provincial.] In zoology, the abdomen of the brachyurous or short-tailed decapod crustaceans, as crabs: so called because it is folded under and closely applied to the thorax. Its width and general shape often distinguish the sexes.
3. n. . In ship carpentry, a piece of curved timber placed in a ship just above the foremost end of the keel, to join together the several pieces of the stem. Also called stomach-piece. See cut under stem.
4. n. 4. In mech., the piece that holds the cutting-tool of a plane.
5. n. 5. Any device for protecting a surface of earth from the action of moving water. Examples of such devices are: a mattress of brushwood and logs anchored with stones, to protect river-banks from the action of the current;
6. To put an apron on; furnish with an apron; cover as with an apron.
7. n. In mining, a block of timber forming an off-set to a pump-rod.
8. n. In gold-milling, the amalgamated copper plates outside of a stamp-battery, used to collect the gold from the pulp which flows over these plates in a thin stream from the mortar. Also apron-plate.
9. n. The vertical portion of the slide-rest of an engine-lathe which carries the clasp-nut and the gearing for the feed.
10. n. The slide or grate of a punching- or shearing-machine.
11. n. A platform built of timbers at the foot of a slide, which guides in the desired direction logs leaving the slide.
12. n. The shield in front of the face of an undershot water-wheel, intended to keep the water in action upon the buckets.
13. n. An overwashed deposit of gravel and sand such as is commonly spread southward from the greater moraines of the northeastern United States. Also frontal apron and morainic apron.
14. n. A trough or channel, or a shallow vat, of considerable width as compared with its depth, over which water or other liquid flows in a thin wide sheet, or in which it stands; specifically, the wide, shallow channel through which the water flows to the periphery of a breast-wheel or overshot wheel.
15. n. In saltmanuf., a shallow tray in which a dilute solution of brine is exposed to the sun to be evaporated and concentrated.

Wiktionary

1. n. An article of clothing worn over the front of the torso and/or legs for protection from spills.
2. n. A hard surface bordering a structure or area.
3. n. The sides of a tree’s canopy.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An article of dress, of cloth, leather, or other stuff, worn on the fore part of the body, to keep the clothes clean, to defend them from injury, or as a covering. It is commonly tied at the waist by strings.
2. n. Prov. Eng., Prov. Eng. Something which by its shape or use suggests an apron
3. n. Prov. Eng. The fat skin covering the belly of a goose or duck.
4. n. A piece of leather, or other material, to be spread before a person riding on an outside seat of a vehicle, to defend him from the rain, snow, or dust; a boot.
5. n. (Gun.) A leaden plate that covers the vent of a cannon.
6. n. (Shipbuilding) A piece of carved timber, just above the foremost end of the keel.
7. n. A platform, or flooring of plank, at the entrance of a dock, against which the dock gates are shut.
8. n. A flooring of plank before a dam to cause the water to make a gradual descent.
9. n. (Mech.) The piece that holds the cutting tool of a planer.
10. n. (Plumbing) A strip of lead which leads the drip of a wall into a gutter; a flashing.
11. n. (Zoöl.) The infolded abdomen of a crab.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the part of a modern theater stage between the curtain and the orchestra (i.e., in front of the curtain)
2. n. a garment of cloth or leather or plastic that is tied about the waist and worn to protect your clothing
3. n. a paved surface where aircraft stand while not being used
4. n. (golf) the part of the fairway leading onto the green