chaperone
/ˈʃæ.pəˌɹoʊn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.75 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An older person who accompanies other younger people to ensure the propriety of their behaviour, often an older woman accompanying a young woman.
noun
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.
noun
An employee sent by a British company to the European Union to work with a client there, to circumvent restrictions imposed after Brexit.
British usage
verb
To act as a chaperone.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "'Purcell had volunteered to chaperone a delegation of female students'"
- "TfL has more than enough to be getting on with each day without having to chaperone TV crews."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʃæ.pəˌɹoʊn/
- British English: /ˈʃæ.pəˌɹəʊn/
Usage
- British usage