diaper

• dyaper, diapre, dyapre, dieper, dyoper, dyeper, dioper, dipar (obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪ(ə)pə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪ(ə)pɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: di‧a‧per, dia‧per
• Rhymes: -aɪpə(ɹ), -aɪəpə(ɹ)

From Middle English dyaper, diapre, dyapre, from Old French diapre, dyapre, a variant of dyaspre, diaspre (“ornamental silk cloth embellished with floral or decorative geometrical patterns”), from Medieval Latin diaspra, diasprum (“a type of rich, valuable silken cloth”), probably from Byzantine Greek δίασπρος (díaspros, “very white; pure white”, adjective), from δια- (dia-, “across”) + ἄσπρος (áspros, “white”).^[1][2][3]

diaper (countable and uncountable, plural diapers)

2. (Canada, US, Philippines, India) An 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, or by an adult who is incontinent or wets the bed, out of convenience, or under extreme working conditions without access to a toilet; a nappy.

   Synonyms: nappy, napkin, pampers, diapie; see also Thesaurus:diaper

   cloth diaper, disposable diaper, nighttime diaper, swim diaper

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

     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.

   • 1817, Thomas Ewell, Letters to Ladies Detailing Important Information, Concerning Themselves and Infants‎^[1], W. Brown, page 103:

     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.

   • 1839, J[oseph] Warrington, The Nurse's Guide‎^[2], Thomas, Cowperthwait and Co., page 82:

     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.

   • 1888 December, Anonymous [A Jersey Mother], “Diaper Suspenders”, in Leroy M. Yale, editor, Babyhood: A Monthly Magazine for Mothers‎^[3], volume V, number 49, Babyhood Publishing Company, page 18:

     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.

   • 1899, Robert Jardine, Practical Text-book of Midwifery for Nurses and Students‎^[4], The Macmillan Publishers, page 129:

     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.

   • 1941 May, “The House They built, The Garden They Grew”, in Better Homes & Gardens, volume 19, number 9, Meredith Publishing Company, pages 19–20:

     Some things we were sure of: there would be automatic heat, enough bedrooms to go around, space in the bathroom for a diaper-change while Daddy shaved, plenty of closets, and of course that the kitchen with a minimum of steps.

   • 1948 January, Elizabeth Chant Robertson, “Your Questions: Our Answers”, in Byrne Hope Sanders, editor, Chatelaine‎^[5], volume 21, number 1, Maclean-Hunter, Child Health Clinic, page 53:

     Either birds-eye cotton or flannelette diapers are good. The newer gauze variety is very satisfactory. They are more expensive, but you need fewer of them as they are so easily washed and they dry so quickly.

   • 1988 March 7, Laura Jereski, “Pass the slingshot”, in James Michaels, editor, Forbes, volume 141, number 5, Malcolm Forbes (publisher), page 86:

     The company manufactured an unfitted adult diaper, modeled on early versions of disposable baby diapers.

   • 1991, Jeff Barth, Marge Barth, Child Training and the Home School: A Legacy of Grace, Parable Publishing House, →ISBN, page 48:

     A dirty diaper can be unpleasant to an infant; it may develop into a rash if it isn't attended to promptly, and a rash can make an infant even more demanding (wanting our comfort).

   • 2014 August, Swatee Dey, C. Tucker Helmes, Jeffrey C. White, Shaoying Zhou, “Safety of Disposable Diaper Materials: Extensive Evaluations Validate Use”, in Russell W. Steele, editor, Clinical Pediatrics, volume 53, number 9, SAGE Publications, →DOI, page 17:

     Disposable diapers are primarily composed of polymers, such as cellulose, polypropylene, polyester, and polyethylene, which are biologically inert and not bio-available.

   • 2025 September 6, Saabira Chaudhuri, “How We Became Corrupted by Plastic”, in The New York Times‎^[6], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 September 2025:

     What was marketed as a tool for convenience by the Pampers maker Procter & Gamble in the 1960s eroded the incentives to start potty training early, freeing children from the feeling of wetness that comes from cloth and freeing parents from the inconvenience of washing used diapers or sending them out to be professionally cleaned.

4. (historical) A textile fabric having a repeating pattern, especially of diamonds or flowers, formed by alternating directions of thread.

   Near-synonym: diamond twill

   • 1574, The Rates of the Cusſtome Houſe‎^[7], John Allde (publisher), unnumbered page:

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

     Diaper tablecloths, the piece containing 20 yards, [costs] 40 shillings.

   • 1602, Joshua Cooke, A Pleasant Conceited Comedie, Matthew Lawe, 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.

   • 1688, Henry Rhodes, The Pleasures of Matrimony‎^[8], A. G., page 36:

     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.

   • 1756, Arthur Collins, The Peerage of England‎^[9], 3 edition, volume III, page 54:

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

   • 1801, William Butler, Arithmetical Questions‎^[10], 3 edition, S. Couchman, page 141:

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

   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray‎^[11], page 156:

     The orphreys were woven in a diaper of red and gold silk, and were starred with medallions of many saints and martyrs, among whom was St. Sebastian.

   • 1959, Alice Winchester, editor, Antiques‎^[12], volume 76, page 429:

     The damask of that era, with its fine texture and handsome pictorial patterns, was very costly. Little of it, compared to diaper, was owned by colonists during their first century in America.

   • 2005, Ian Kelly, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Dandy, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 166:

     Russia-towelling was ordered for bath towels, and diaper towelling (damask linen) for nightshirts.

   • 2019, M. T. W. Payne, “Bankers and booksellers: evidence of the late fifteenth-century English book trade in the ledgers of the Bardi bank”, in Elizabeth A. New, Christian Steer, editor, Medieval Londoners: Essays to Mark the Eightieth Birthday of Caroline M. Barron‎^[13], University of London Press, →ISBN, page 258:

     Joan Chicheley, 1521, left a diaper tablecloth to be divided between the high altar and Our Lady's altar. The latter could have been either an altar of Our Lady of Pity in the Trinity chapel on the north side, or that of Our Lady and St. John the Baptist in the new south aisle.

6. (chiefly Canada, US, colloquial, sometimes humorous) Something that absorbs and collects (retains) liquid or waste material, much like a diaper (sense 1).

   meat diaper, period diaper, engine diaper, rubber diaper

   • 1926, Beckwith Whitehouse, “A Contribution to the Pathology and Causation of Dysmenorrhoea.*”, in The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynæcology of the British Empire‎^[14], volume 33, number 4, page 611:

     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.

   • 1976 October, “Plant Diaper”, in Mary Jane Pool, editor, House & Garden‎^[15], volume 148, number 10 (advertisement), Ralph F. Timm, page 204:

     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.

   • 2012 April 5, Rob Townley, “Robotic Vacuum Comparison”, in omaha-maker-group‎^[16], Google Groups:

     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.

   • 2020 December 4, Victor Quinaz, “Nick Gurr”, in Dave Stone, director, Big Mouth‎^[17], season 4, episode 6, via Netflix:

     Andrew 3000 (John Mulaney): Still, it might be nice to see the old gang.
     Nick Birch (Nick Kroll): It might also be nice if you changed my cum diaper. And don't be stingy with the Nicky powder.

   • 2023, Jen Beagin, Big Swiss: A Novel, Scribner, →ISBN, page 251:

     Greta felt naked in her nightgown. She was also wearing what she called a blood diaper, having run out of tampons. Nevertheless, she fox-walked across the room and sat in the armchair next to the desk.

8. (Canada, US, colloquial, humorous, possibly derogatory) A piece of clothing that resembles the shape of a diaper (sense 1).
   • 1940, Patience Abbe, No Place Like Home, Julian Messner, page 44:

     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.

   • 1947, Louis Fischer, “Mahatma Gandhi and Generalissimo Stalin”, in Modern Review‎^[18], volume 1, number 1, Greenwood Reprint Corporation, published 1968, page 15:

     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.

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

     "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."

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

     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.

   • 2012 April 11, Dan Lamothe, “Journalist wear-tests "combat diaper" with Marines”, in Military Times‎^[19], archived from the original on 26 May 2012:

     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.

10. (architecture, decorative arts) A repeating geometrical or (often stylised) floral pattern in bas-relief, usually of small diamonds evenly spaced.
12. (art) The pattern itself, decorating a flat or digital surface; diaperwork.
    • 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^[20], John Henry Parker, page 47:

      […] 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.

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

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

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

      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.

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

      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.

14. (heraldry, chiefly historical) A repeating geometrical or floral pattern, used to cover the surface of a shield and forming the ground for any charges.

    Near-synonym: fur

    • 1610, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldrie‎^[21], 1 edition, Raphe Mab, pages 21–22:

      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.

    • 1612, Henrie Peacham, Graphice: Or, the Most Auncient and Excellent Art Of Drawing and Limming, diſpoſed into three Bookes‎^[22], John Browne, page 169:

      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.

    • 1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry, Speculative and Practical: With the True Art of Blazon, According to the Most Approved Heralds in Europe‎^[23], volume 1, J. Mackeuen, page 228:

      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.

    • 1795 November 12, “Obſervations on a Calendar in the Poſſeſſion of Francis Douche, F. S. A.”, in Archaeologia: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity‎^[24], volume XIL, The Society of Antiquaries of London, published 1796, page 202:

      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.

    • 1856, “Heraldry”, in Thomas Stewart Traill, editor, The Encyclopædia Britannica; Or, Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature‎^[25], 8 edition, volume XI, Adam & Charles Black, page 329:

      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.

    • 1892, Charles Boutell, edited by S. T. Aveling, Heraldry, Ancient and Modern: Including Boutell's Heraldry‎^[26], W. W. Gibbings, page 53:

      Diaper may be executed in any tincture that is in keeping with heraldic rule, but it does not affect in any degree the heraldic tinctures of the composition. When the surface of shield is of large unbroken extent, or when there is but one charge upon it, it is peculiarly desirable to Diaper the field.

    • 1949, E[dward] Clive Rouse, Longthorpe Tower, Peterborough, Northamptonshire‎^[27], H.M. Stationery Office, page 4:

      It consists of an heraldic diaper within a "tapestry" border below, where the Thorpe arms of a fess between six and fleur-de-lys alternate with another coat on lozenges.

    • 2001, Alan Bott, The Heraldry in Merton College, Oxford, Merton College, →ISBN, page 92:

      This is a large and finely executed shield, the red with a good diaper, but the fess has been repaired by a piece of white glass.

16. (obsolete) A towel, napkin or tablecloth made from the diaper fabric (sense 2).
    • 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]:

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

    • 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^[28], S. Buckley, page 23:

      3 P^s Sheeting ditto.
      1 P^s Cambrick.
      2 P^s Table Diaper.
      64 P^s Buckrams.

    • 1759, P. K. Powys, edited by Emily J. Climenson, Passages from the Diaries of Mrs. Philip Lybbe Powys‎^[29], Longmans, Green, And Co., published 1899, page 47:

      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.

    • 1815 October 3, Ebenezer Center, “Berkshire Agricultural Society”, in The American Magazine‎^[30], volume I, published 1815, page 231:

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

    • 1840 November 12, Charles Wise, “Free Dry Goods”, in Nathaniel P. Rogers, editor, National Anti-Slavery Standard‎^[31], volume 1, number 36 (advertisement), American Anti-Slavery Society, published 11 February 1811, page 144:

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

diaper (third-person singular simple present diapers, present participle diapering, simple past and past participle diapered)

1. To put diapers on someone.

   Diapering a baby is something you have to learn fast.

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

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

2. To draw flowers or figures, as upon cloth.
   • 1622, Henry Peacham (Jr.), The Compleat Gentleman:

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

• (absorbent garment): plastic pants, training pants; more at Thesaurus:diaper
• (textile): damask, twill

• Piedra, aperid, paired, pardie, piedra, repaid

• “diaper”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• diaper on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• diaper (cloth) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• diapering on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• diaper (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

diaper

1. alternative form of dyaper

diaper

1. alternative form of dyapren