Wiktionary

chaperone

English

edit

Etymology

edit

See chaperon.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

chaperone (plural chaperones)

  1. An older person who accompanies other younger people to ensure the propriety of their behaviour, often an older woman accompanying a young woman.
  2. (biochemistry) A protein that assists the non-covalent folding/unfolding and the assembly/disassembly of other macromolecular structures, but does not occur in these structures when the latter are performing their normal biological functions.
  3. (UK, business) An employee sent by a British company to the European Union to work with a client there, to circumvent restrictions imposed after Brexit.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

Verb

edit

chaperone (third-person singular simple present chaperones, present participle chaperoning, simple past and past participle chaperoned)

  1. To act as a chaperone.
    • 1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act V, page 183:
      They played you off very cunning, Eliza. If it had been only one of them, you could have nailed him. But you see, there was two; and one of them chaperoned the other, as you might say.
    • 2006 April 17, The New Yorker, page 27:
      'Purcell had volunteered to chaperone a delegation of female students'
    • 2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, pages 48–49:
      TfL has more than enough to be getting on with each day without having to chaperone TV crews.
  2. (UK, business) To work as a chaperone.

Translations

edit

Further reading

edit

Anagrams

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=chaperone&oldid=80484874"