Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cover, hang, or decorate with cloth in loose folds.
  • intransitive verb To arrange or let fall in loose folds.
  • intransitive verb To hang or rest limply.
  • intransitive verb To fall or hang in loose folds.
  • noun A drapery; a curtain.
  • noun A paper or cloth covering placed over a patient's body during medical examination or treatment, designed to provide privacy or a sterile operative field.
  • noun The way in which cloth falls or hangs.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cover with or as with cloth; clothe; dress, as a window, an alcove, the outside of a house, etc., the human body, or a representation of the human body, as in sculpture or painting: as, the buildings were draped with flags; the painter's figures are well draped.
  • To arrange or adjust, as clothing, hangings, etc.
  • To make into cloth.
  • To make cloth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To make cloth.
  • intransitive verb To design drapery, arrange its folds, etc., as for hangings, costumes, statues, etc.
  • transitive verb To cover or adorn with drapery or folds of cloth, or as with drapery
  • transitive verb obsolete To rail at; to banter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK A curtain, a drapery.
  • noun US See drapes.
  • noun US A youth subculture distinguished by its sharp dress, especially peg-leg pants (1950s: e.g. Baltimore, MD). Antonym: square
  • verb To cover or adorn with drapery or folds of cloth, or as with drapery; as, to drape a bust, a building, etc.
  • verb To rail at; to banter.
  • verb To make cloth.
  • verb To design drapery, arrange its folds, etc., as for hangings, costumes, statues, etc.
  • verb To hang or rest limply
  • verb To spread over, cover.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the manner in which fabric hangs or falls
  • noun a sterile covering arranged over a patient's body during a medical examination or during surgery in order to reduce the possibility of contamination
  • verb cover or dress loosely with cloth
  • verb arrange in a particular way
  • noun hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window)
  • verb place casually
  • verb cover as if with clothing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English drapen, to weave, from Old French draper, from drap, cloth, from Late Latin drappus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English drape (noun, "a drape"), from Old French draper ("to drape", also, "to full cloth"), from drap ("cloth, drabcloth"), from Late Latin drappus, drapus ("drabcloth, kerchief"), a word first recorded in the Capitularies of Charlemagne, probably from Frankish *drapi, *drāpi ("that which is fulled, drabcloth", literally "that which is struck or for striking"), from Proto-Germanic *drapiz (“a strike, hit, blow”) and Proto-Germanic *drēpiz (“intended for striking, to be beaten”), both from *drepanan (“to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- (“to beat, crush, make or become thick”). Cognate with English drub ("to beat"), North Frisian dreep ("a blow"), Low German drapen, dräpen ("to strike"), German treffen ("to meet"), Swedish dräpa ("to slay"). More at drub.

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Examples

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  • A cow, whose milk is dried up. A farrow cow. - Old provincial term from the north of England.

    May 2, 2011