English

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Etymology

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See chaperon.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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chaperone (plural chaperones)

  1. An older person who accompanies other younger people to ensure the propriety of their behaviour, often an older woman accompanying a young woman.
  2. (biochemistry) 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.
  3. (UK, business) An employee sent by a British company to the European Union to work with a client there, to circumvent restrictions imposed after Brexit.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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chaperone (third-person singular simple present chaperones, present participle chaperoning, simple past and past participle chaperoned)

  1. To act as a chaperone.
    • 1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act V, page 183:
      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.
    • 2006 April 17, The New Yorker, page 27:
      'Purcell had volunteered to chaperone a delegation of female students'
    • 2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, pages 48–49:
      TfL has more than enough to be getting on with each day without having to chaperone TV crews.
  2. (UK, business) To work as a chaperone.

Translations

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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  NODES
Note 1