noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A serviette; a (usually rectangular) piece of cloth or paper used at the table for wiping the mouth and hands for cleanliness while eating.
2. 2
   garment consisting of a folded cloth drawn up between the legs and fastened at the waist; worn by infants to catch excrement wordnet
3. 3
   A nappy (UK), a diaper (American). British, South-Africa
4. 4
   a small piece of table linen that is used to wipe the mouth and to cover the lap in order to protect clothing wordnet
5. 5
   A small scarf worn on the head by Christian women (chiefly Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox) when entering a church, as a token of modesty.

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6. 6
   Ellipsis of sanitary napkin. Philippines, abbreviation, alt-of, dated, ellipsis

Synonyms

All synonyms

broomcleaningdevicediaperdiaperdip

Antonyms

All antonyms

clothhandspillstowel

Example

More examples

"Clean your lips with the napkin."

Etymology

From Middle English napkyn, equivalent to nape (“cloth”) + -kin.

Related phrases

back-of-the-napkinnapkin mathnapkin rashnapkin ringsanitary napkintail-napkinafter eatingat dinnerat restaurantsat tableclean eatingclean mouth

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.