Definitions

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

  • noun A folded piece of absorbent material, such as paper or cloth, that is placed between a baby's legs and fastened at the waist to contain excretions.
  • noun A similar piece of material, worn by incontinent adults.
  • noun A pattern composed of small, regularly repeated geometric motifs, usually diamonds or lozenges, used to decorate a surface.
  • noun A white cotton or linen fabric having such a pattern.
  • noun A piece of such fabric.
  • transitive verb To put a diaper on.
  • transitive verb To weave or decorate in a diaper pattern.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Originally, a silken fabric of one color having a pattern of the same color woven in it; now, a textile fabric having a pattern not strongly defined, and repeated at short intervals; especially, such a fabric of linen, where the pattern is indicated only by the direction of the thread, the whole being white or in the unbleached natural color. Compare damask
  • noun A pattern for decoration of any kind consisting of a simple figure often repeated, as in the woven fabric.
  • noun Any pattern constantly repeated over a relatively large surface, whether consisting of figures separated by the background only, or of compartments constantly succeeding one another, and filled with a design, especially a geometric design, or one based on a flower-form.
  • noun In heraldry, same as diapering.
  • noun A towel or napkin.
  • noun A square piece of cloth for swaddling the nates and adjacent parts of au infant; a clout.
  • To variegate or diversify, as cloth, with figures; flower: as, diapered silk.
  • To draw or work in diaper, or as part of a diaper; introduce in a diapered pattern or fabric.
  • To draw a series or succession of flowers or figures, as upon cloth.

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

  • transitive verb To ornament with figures, etc., arranged in the pattern called diaper, as cloth in weaving.
  • transitive verb To put a diaper on (a child).
  • noun Any textile fabric (esp. linen or cotton toweling) woven in diaper pattern. See 2.
  • noun (Fine Arts) Surface decoration of any sort which consists of the constant repetition of one or more simple figures or units of design evenly spaced.
  • noun A towel or napkin for wiping the hands, etc.
  • noun An infant's breechcloth.
  • intransitive verb To draw flowers or figures, as upon cloth.

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

  • noun A textile fabric having a diamond-shaped pattern formed by alternating directions of thread.
  • noun A towel or napkin made from such fabric.
  • noun North America An absorbent garment worn by a baby, or by someone who is incontinent.
  • noun The diamond pattern associated with diaper textiles.
  • verb To put diapers on someone.
  • verb To draw flowers or figures, as upon cloth.

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

  • noun a fabric (usually cotton or linen) with a distinctive woven pattern of small repeated figures
  • noun garment consisting of a folded cloth drawn up between the legs and fastened at the waist; worn by infants to catch excrement

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, a patterned fabric, from Old French diapre, diaspre, from Medieval Latin diasprum, a white silken material, from Medieval Greek diaspros, pure white : Greek dia-, intensive pref.; see dia– + Late Greek aspros, white (probably from Latin asper, rough).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French dyapre, diaspre, in mediaeval Latin diaspra, diasprum from Byzantine Greek δίασπρος (adj), from δια- ‘across’ + άσπρος ‘white’.

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