diaper

plural diapers · alternative obsolete diapre · alternative obsolete dieper · alternative obsolete dioper · alternative obsolete dipar · alternative obsolete dyaper · alternative obsolete dyapre · alternative obsolete dyeper · alternative obsolete dyoper

1. CanadaIndiaPhilippinesUScountableuncountableAn absorbent garment worn around the crotch that retains the wearer's urine and feces, often worn by a baby or young child who is not yet toilet trained, by an adult who is incontinent (who wets the bed), or under extreme working conditions without access to a toilet; a nappy.First known use 1810

   cloth diaper, disposable diaper, nighttime diaper, swim diaper

   5 more examples

   A bag of baby-clothes, containing 1 ſheet, 1 ſhi[r]t, 1 bedgown, 12 diapers, 2 child's bedgowns, 2 child's ſhirts, 2 child's robes, 2 child's nightcaps and a wrapper.

   1810 April 19, “Exeter Lying-in Charity”, in Trewman's Exeter Flying-Post, volume XLIX, number 2324, R. Trewman, M. Trewman, page 4

   You push it up the vagina while lying on your back, and retain it there by a bandage around, as in wearing diapers. It may be taken out at night after laying down; but must be pushed up in the morning before rising.

   1817, Thomas Ewell, Letters to Ladies Detailing Important Information, Concerning Themselves and Infants, W. Brown, page 103

   We have repeatedly known children have from six to ten discharges of yellow-coloured fæces per day, for many days, without injury, provided they nursed well and were well attended to. […] We are far from wishing to make nurses or mothers indifferent to this state of things, but we do wish, for the sake of the welfare of the important little beings intrusted to their care, that they will not think, because they are too free in the bowels, and give the nurse a great deal of trouble to change the diapers frequently, they must take paregoric to check them.

   1839, J[oseph] Warrington, The Nurse's Guide, Thomas, Cowperthwait and Co., page 82

   Perhaps you will find space in your charming magazine for the following description of suspenders I made to keep my baby's diaper in place. I had never seen them before, although other mothers may have something similar for the purpose.

   1888 December 28, Anonymous [A Jersey Mother], “Diaper Suspenders”, in Leroy M. Yale, editor, Babyhood: A Monthly Magazine for Mothers, volume V, number 49, Babyhood Publishing Company, page 18

   A midwife should always visit her patient within twelve hours after labour, and she should make a routine practice of enquiring whether or not her urine has been passed. […] She must thoroughly cleanse her patient, change her diaper, tighten or change her binder, and clear away all soiled things from under her.

   1899, Robert Jardine, Practical Text-book of Midwifery for Nurses and Students, Macmillan Publishers, page 129

   Synonyms: nappy, napkin, pampers, diapie

2. CanadaUScolloquialcountablehumoroussometimesuncountableA container that absorbs and collects (retains) liquid or waste material, similar to a diaper (noun sense 1).First known use 1868

   engine diaper, meat diaper, period diaper, rubber diaper

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   Pendent straps in front and behind support a diaper, or its equivalent, during the period of the menses.

   1868, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, volume II, United States Government Printing Office, published 1870, page 384

   Sanitary Wood Wool, and Wood Wool Wadding consist of finely-comminuted pine wood, rendered antiseptic with sublimate; they are very absorbent, and are now much used for dressing wounds; and the wadding is formed into "diapers" for ladies' use in menstruation and haemorrhage, and into accouchement sheets.

   1890, William Martindale, The Extra Pharmacopœia, 6 edition, H. K. Lewis, page 313

   The tissue is friable and must be collected in a fresh state. If retained in the vagina or on the menstrual diaper for any length of time, its features, both maco- and microscopical, are lost. The further consideration of this tissue is deferred to a later section.

   1926, Beckwith Whitehouse, “A Contribution to the Pathology and Causation of Dysmenorrhoea.*”, in The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynæcology of the British Empire, volume 33, number 4, page 611

   NOW… a really easy way to water your indoor hanging plants. ¶ ATTACH… the Plant Diaper to any hanging basket up to 14″. ¶ WATER… the clear plastic Plant Diaper catches and holds the water, holding the humidity around the plant.

   1976 October 28, “Plant Diaper”, in Mary Jane Pool, editor, House & Garden, volume 148, number 10 (advertisement), Ralph F. Timm, page 204

   i want a vacuum that is smart enough to try to go back to its charging station before dying. Is more autonomous ... i do not have to tell it what to do with scheduling necessarily, it cleans as it sees necessary. Hopefully, it can empty its own diaper.

   2012 April 5, Rob Townley, “Robotic Vacuum Comparison”, in omaha-maker-group, Google Groups

3. CanadaUScolloquialcountablederogatoryhumorouspossiblyuncountableA piece of clothing that resembles the shape of a diaper (noun sense 1) but lacks the absorbency.

   "Not me," he said. "I don't wanna go around singin' and dancin' with lipstick on my face and wearin' a diaper." "It's not a diaper — it's a loincloth." "Call it what you want, it's a diaper."

   1975, A. E. Hotchner, Looking for Miracles: A Memoir About Loving, Harper & Row, →ISBN, page 66

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   Gandhi was the holiest man in the world and ONLY holy men know how to fight in this world. Gandhi only needs a little diaper and no shoes. He does not need very much food. He doesn't ask for any of the riches of the whole world.

   1940, Patience Abbe, No Place Like Home, Julian Messner, page 44

   I suppose the average American or European, if asked about Mahatma Gandhi, would summarize his knowledge as follows: Gandhi is a thin, brown toothless Indian, dressed in a diaper, who lives on goat's milk and vegetables, fasts frequently, and has been twisting the British lion's tail for a quarter of a century inside and outside of jail.

   1947, Louis Fischer, “Mahatma Gandhi and Generalissimo Stalin”, in Modern Review, volume 1, numbers 1url=https://archive.org/details/modern-review-alcia_1947-03_1_1, Greenwood Reprint Corporation, published 1968, page 15

   Ten minutes later I was standing beside the stage, barefoot and half-naked in a sumo diaper. The audience of six hundred was bundled up against the 40-degree weather. The bigger guys had layers of protective fat—I started shivering immediately.

   2005, Joshua Davis, The Underdog: How I Survived the World's Most Outlandish Competitions, Villard, →ISBN, page 87

   No, I'm wearing an armored "diaper" because it has become a requirement for many Marines in theater. When I asked Lt. Col. Kevin Trimble, commander of 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., about the new gear fielded to protect Marines' groins from blast injuries, he issued the armor to photographer James Lee and I, too.

   2012 April 11, Dan Lamothe, “Journalist wear-tests "combat diaper" with Marines”, in Military Times, archived from the original on 26 May 2012

4. countablehistoricaluncountableA textile fabric having a repeating pattern, especially of diamonds or flowers, formed by alternating directions of thread.First known use c. 1330

   Near-synonym: diamond twill

   5 more examples

   Diaper table clothes the peece containing xx.yards xl.s

   1574, The Rates of the Cusſtome Houſe, John Allde (publisher), unnumbered page

   Where's that knaue Pipkin, bid him ſpred the Fetch the cleane diaper napkins from my cheſt, Set out the guilded ſalt, and bid the fellow.

   1602, Joshua Cooke, A Pleasant Conceited Comedie, Matthew Lawe, unnumbered page

   Then the young Gentleman takes upon him to call the Maid, for he has in a manner two homes for the preſent; and bids her bring a Bottle of Sack, Straight up comes the Maid with a Bottle, a clean Glaſs, and a Diaper Napkin, and the Mother drinks to Mrs. Prittle-prattle.

   1688, Henry Rhodes, The Pleasures of Matrimony, A. G., page 36

   Item, I bequeath, to the uſe of the ſame church, an howſeling towell of diaper, and an altar cloath of diaper, there to remain.

   1756, Arthur Collins, The Peerage of England, 3 edition, volume III, page 54

   Diaper is a ſort of linen cloth woven in flowers, and other figures; by ſome reckoned the fineſt ſpecies of figured linen after damaſk.

   1801, William Butler, Arithmetical Questions, 3 edition, S. Couchman, page 141

   Synonyms: diamond twill

5. countableuncountabledecorative arts; embroidery; decorative arts; embroideryarchitectureA repeating geometrical or (often stylized) floral pattern, usually of small diamonds evenly spaced, that decorates a flat surface, sometimes in bas-relief; diaperwork.First known use 1783

   John's attack upon geometry began with an interest in his brother's box of bricks and in a diaper wallpaper.

   1935, Olaf Stapledon, Odd John, Gollancz, published 2012, page 9

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   The troilled piece, that woven like a courſe gauze, and the lining in a diaper pattern, preſent ſamples which prove that the art of weaving was far advanced at that period.

   1783 May 1, Lady Moira [Elizabeth Rawdon, Countess of Moira], “Particulars relative to a human skeleton, and the Garments that were found thereon, when dug out of a Bog at […] ”, in Archaeologia: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, volume VII, The Society of Antiquaries of London, published 1785, pages 98–99

   […] a mode of treatment which is also—and perhaps in a much greater degree—frequent in early painting, where a flat ground of gold or bright colour, broken and enriched with stamped or painted diaper, outlines and relieves the subject.

   1855, Fra[nci]s W[ilson] Oliphant, A Plea for Painted Glass: Being an Inquiry Into Its Nature, Character, Objects, and Its Claims as an Art, John Henry Parker, page 47

   Diaper stenciling can be a combination of border and spot stenciling. Regularly spaced chalk lines are laid out on a floor in a simple diamond or square diaper pattern. The transverse chalk lines are stenciled with narrow bands of design or painted as solid stripes and become part of an overall pattern.

   1987 [1974], JoAnne Day, The Complete Book of Stencilcraft, Reprint edition, Dover Publications, →ISBN, page 76

   The whole western front of that period (now an internal wall) was faced in large bricks, and the pointing done to receive painted diaper decoration, much of which still survives. It is difficult to date this build. Painted diaper work is not common before 1500, and so the wing may have been the work of Abbot Reeve or of Sir William Cordell after he acquired the Hall in 1554.

   2006, Lyn Boothman, Richard Hyde Parker, editor, Savage Fortune: An Aristocratic Family in the Early Seventeenth Century, Boydell Press, →ISBN, page LXX

6. countablehistoricaluncountablegovernmentA repeating geometrical or floral pattern, used to cover the surface of a shield and forming the ground for any charges.First known use 1610

   Near-synonym: fur

   5 more examples

   Note, that you may haue diaper on any two, three, or more of theſe, or any other their like, in one Bordure, and that not onely Bordures, but aſso Fields of coat-armours are found diapered. […] And albeit things hauing life and ſenſe, or their parts, may bee borne diapered; yet Plants, Fruits, Leaves, Flowers, and other Vegetables, are (in the opinion of ſome Armoriſts) judged to be more fit for ſuch kinde of bearing. This kinde of bearing of diaper in coat-armour, is ſometimes ſeene in Coates of France, and Belgia, but very rare or neuer in England.

   1610, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldrie, 1 edition, Raphe Mab, pages 21–22

   Yes doubtleſſe, and more ſtrictly: only they differ in ſome ſmall particulars; as ſome uſe ſtaines as much as colours, ſome charge their Scotcheons after a ſtrange maner with diaper as the french: ſome uſe round Scotcheons as the Italian, and ſuch like: otherwiſe tis all one, as you may ſee by the Armes of every kingdom.

   1612, Henrie Peacham, Graphice: Or, the Most Auncient and Excellent Art Of Drawing and Limming, diſpoſed into three Bookes, John Browne, page 169

   Diapering is ſaid, when the Field is ſhadowed with Flowerſhings, and various Turnings, by Purfels of Gold, or Silver, or other Colours, after the Form of Flowers or Leaves, as the Weaver's Diaper-Napery: The Germans practiſe it moſt in their illuminate Arms, but rarely the Britains, ſuch Diaperings are to be found in 'Armories.

   1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry, Speculative and Practical: With the True Art of Blazon, According to the Most Approved Heralds in Europe, volume 1, J. Mackeuen, page 228

   In the figure here exhibited the diaper field on the ſhield and furcoat ſeems to indicate that the croſs is in this inſance a badge, and not an armorial bearing; for heralds are agreed, that theſe diapered fields are the mere fancy of the painter, and not regular paternal bearings.

   1795 November 12, “Obſervations on a Calendar in the Poſſeſſion of Francis Douche, F. S. A.”, in Archaeologia: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, volume XIL, The Society of Antiquaries of London, published 1796, page 202

   Besides the honourable ordinaries and the diminutions already mentioned, there are other heraldie figures, called sub-ordinaries, which, by reason of their ancient use in arms, are of worthy bearing; namely, the gyron, quarter, canton, fret, pile, orle, inescutcheon, tressure, annulet, flanches, billet, lozenge, guttes, fusil, rustre, mascle, papil-lone, and diaper.

   1856, “Heraldry”, in Thomas Stewart Traill, editor, The Encyclopædia Britannica; Or, Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, 8 edition, volume XI, Adam & Charles Black, page 329

   Synonyms: fur

7. countableobsoleteuncountableA towel, napkin, or tablecloth made from the diaper fabric (noun sense 4).First known use c. 1592–1939

   3 Pˢ Sheeting ditto. 1 Pˢ Cambrick. 2 Pˢ Table Diaper. 64 Pˢ Buckrams.

   1732, Richard Woolley, “A Particular Account of the Stock in the Cloth Trade of the ſaid Richard Woolley, […] ”, in A True, Exact, and Particular Inventory of All And Singular the Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments, Goods, Chattels, Debts, and Personal Estate Whatſoever, which Richard Woolley was Seized or Poſſeſſed of […] [in 1730], or at any Time ſince, &c, S. Buckley, page 23

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   Let one attend him with a silver basin, […] / Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper.

   c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

   An abbot lies here in a stone coffin, which about fifty years since was opened by some persons (as was thought, only for his crozier and ring). The body was there entire, and the diaper he was wrapt in perfectly fresh, an incident that seems surprising.

   1759, P. K. Powys, edited by Emily J. Climenson, Passages from the Diaries of Mrs. Philip Lybbe Powys, Longmans, Green, And Co., published 1899, page 47

   And we take pleasure in particularizing many other specimens of elegance and usefulness, such as Stockings, Diapers, Blankets, Coverlids, and Carpeting.

   1815 October 3, Ebenezer Center, “Berkshire Agricultural Society”, in The American Magazine, volume I, published 1815, page 231

   […] lead-colored knitting cotton, cotton table diapers, printed and plain grass cloths, wicking and cotton laps, fine linen thread, […]

   1840 November 12, Charles Wise, “Free Dry Goods”, in Nathaniel P. Rogers, editor, National Anti-Slavery Standard, volume 1, number 36 (advertisement), American Anti-Slavery Society, published 11 February 1811, page 144

   Just received from New York, a full assortment of genuine Irish linens from the best manfacturers. 7-4 and 84 German table-linen diapers.

   1869 January 21, “City items”, in The Louisville Courier-Journal, volume XXXVIII, number 178, Trade Palace—Dry Goods, page 2

present singular third person diapers · participle present diapering · participle past diapered · past diapered · alternative obsolete diapre · alternative obsolete dieper · alternative obsolete dioper · alternative obsolete dipar · alternative obsolete dyaper · alternative obsolete dyapre · alternative obsolete dyeper · alternative obsolete dyoper

1. transitiveTo put diapers on someone.

   Diapering a baby is something you have to learn fast.

   2 more examples

   It is pretty hard to make a mistake when diapering a baby. About the only way a person can go wrong is to put the diaper on backward, a condition that neither the diaperer nor the diaperee is likely to notice.

   1988 March 13, Delia Ephron, “In This Year's Movies, Baby Knows Best”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 May 2015

   I diaper myself or she helps Diaper me and sometimes I get to wet them, she knows I like that.

   2019, Michael Bent, Rosalie Bent, Understanding Adult Babies: Their Psychology and Lifestyles

2. transitiveTo draw geometrical or floral patterns, as upon cloth.

   If you diaper upon folds, let your work be broken.

   1622, Henry Peacham (Jr.), The Compleat Gentleman

1. A surname.

   So this Susan Diaper was admitted Nov. 4, 1678. She married John Welham, and her son and heir, John Welham, was admitted Nov. 14, 1701.

   1902, W. A. Copinger, History of the Parish of Buxhall in the County of Suffolk, London: H. Sotheran & Co., page 207

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   Lord Orrery was President to-day; but both our dukes were absent. Brother Wyndham recommended [William] Diaper to the Society. I believe we shall make a contribution among ourselves, which I don't like.

   1712 March 8, Jonathan Swift, A Journal to Stella, published 1766, Letter 43

   At the end of the week, when, according to appointment, he waited on Mr. Diaper, he was informed laconically that he would not suit, and became aware of the extreme folly of his conduct. The sudden thought that he had spent nearly half of his capital since that day week, aroused him to a very alarming conviction of his danger. With the pardonable anxiety produced by the fear of want, he asked Mr. Diaper to favour him with an acconnt of what Mr. Wiggins had said of him, which, as a matter of course, Mr. Diaper declined doing, merely stating that the character given was not what suited.

   1842, [Anonymous], The Herberts, volume II, London: Saunders & Otley, page 135

   Sam carried the letters and parcels to these farms for many years until 1962 when his daughter Brenda and her husband, John Diaper, took over from him. He was also given a nice retirement present from these farmers.

   1983, Leslie Parkman, North Perrott Remembered, Dorset Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 36

   The 5ft 8in and 11st^([sic]) 1lb left half Bertie Diaper was born in Woolston, Southampton, 11 February 1909. In 1928, he started his playing career with Cowes FC, Isle of Wight, where he also became known also as a fine rowing oarsman. […] Diaper joined Fulham in May 1933 making a further 3 League appearances before his release.

   2020 May 6, Neilson Kaufman, Clapton Orient During WW2, Leyton Orient Football Club, page 32