Etymology From Middle English dyaper, diapre, dyapre, from Old French diapre, dyapre, a variant of dyaspre, diaspre (“ornamental silk cloth embellished with decorative 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”).
Canada, India, Philippines, US 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, by an adult who is incontinent (who wets the bed), or under extreme working conditions without access to a toilet; a nappy.
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:
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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 23, 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:
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Canada, US, Colloquial, Humorous, Sometimes A container that absorbs and collects (retains) liquid or waste material, similar to a diaper (noun sense 1).
engine diaper, meat diaper, period diaper, rubber diaper
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:
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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 23, “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:
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:
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"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:
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:
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Historical A textile fabric having a repeating pattern, especially of diamonds or flowers, formed by alternating directions of thread.
Near-synonym: diamond twill
Diaper table clothes the peece containing xx.yards xl.s1574, The Rates of the Cusſtome Houſe, John Allde (publisher), unnumbered page:
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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:
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Architecture, Art, Arts A repeating geometrical or (often stylized) floral pattern, usually of small diamonds evenly spaced, that decorates a flat surface, sometimes in bas-relief; diaperwork.
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:
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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:
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:
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:
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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:
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Obsolete A towel, napkin, or tablecloth made from the diaper fabric (noun sense 4).
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]:
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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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:
Etymology From Middle English dyaper, diapre, dyapre, from Old French diapre, dyapre, a variant of dyaspre, diaspre (“ornamental silk cloth embellished with decorative 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”).
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To put diapers on someone.
Diapering a baby is something you have to learn fast.
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:
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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:
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To 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: