apron

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

• noun A garment, usually fastened in the back, worn over all or part of the front of the body to protect clothing.
• noun Something that resembles this garment in appearance or function, especially.
• noun A protective shield for a machine.
• noun The paved strip in front of and around airport hangars and terminal buildings.
• noun The part of a stage in a theater extending in front of the curtain.
• noun A platform, as of planking, at the entrance to a dock.
• noun An upper rail or carved panel extending between the legs of a piece of furniture, as beneath a tabletop or chair seat.
• noun A piece of horizontal trim mounted beneath an interior windowsill.
• noun A covering or structure along a shoreline for protection against erosion or a platform serving a similar purpose below a dam or in a sluiceway.
• noun An area covered by sand and gravel deposited at the front of a glacial moraine.
• noun A continuous conveyor belt.
• noun A border of slightly longer grass that surrounds a green on a golf course.
• noun The part of a boxing ring floor that extends beyond the ropes.
• transitive verb To cover, protect, or provide with an apron.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To put an apron on; furnish with an apron; cover as with an apron.
• noun . A piece of apparel made in various ways for covering the front of the person more or less completely.
• noun . Anything resembling an apron in shape or use.
• noun . 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.
• noun 4. In mech., the piece that holds the cutting-tool of a plane.
• noun 5. Any device for protecting a surface of earth from the action of moving water.
• noun In mining, a block of timber forming an off-set to a pump-rod.
• noun 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.
• noun The vertical portion of the slide-rest of an engine-lathe which carries the clasp-nut and the gearing for the feed.
• noun The slide or grate of a punching- or shearing-machine.
• noun A platform built of timbers at the foot of a slide, which guides in the desired direction logs leaving the slide.
• noun The shield in front of the face of an undershot water-wheel, intended to keep the water in action upon the buckets.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun In saltmanuf., a shallow tray in which a dilute solution of brine is exposed to the sun to be evaporated and concentrated.

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

• noun 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.
• noun Prov. Eng., Prov. Eng. Something which by its shape or use suggests an apron
• noun Prov. Eng. The fat skin covering the belly of a goose or duck.
• noun 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.
• noun (Gun.) A leaden plate that covers the vent of a cannon.
• noun (Shipbuilding) A piece of carved timber, just above the foremost end of the keel.
• noun A platform, or flooring of plank, at the entrance of a dock, against which the dock gates are shut.
• noun A flooring of plank before a dam to cause the water to make a gradual descent.
• noun (Mech.) The piece that holds the cutting tool of a planer.
• noun (Plumbing) A strip of lead which leads the drip of a wall into a gutter; a flashing.
• noun (Zoöl.) The infolded abdomen of a crab.

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

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

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

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