What does "pinafore" mean?

A sleeveless dress, often similar to an apron, generally worn over other clothes, and most often worn by young girls as an overdress.

What is a synonym for "pinafore"?

Common synonyms include: apron, dress, garment, jumper, jumper, parts.

Pronounced //ˈpɪ.nəˌfɔ(ɹ)//.

//ˈpɪ.nəˌfɔ(ɹ)// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A sleeveless dress, often similar to an apron, generally worn over other clothes, and most often worn by young girls as an overdress.
"“He looks just like an angel,” said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks, and their clean white pinafores."
2
a sleeveless dress resembling an apron; worn over other clothing wordnet

Verb

""Then mother's a deader too," cried the little girl, dropping her face in her pinafore and sobbing bitterly."

Univerbation of pin + afore. The pinafore was originally pinned to the front of a dress, as it had no buttons.

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