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Apron   Listen
noun
Apron  n.  
1.
An article of dress, of cloth, leather, or other stuff, worn on the fore part of the body, to keep the clothes clean, to defend them from injury, or as a covering. It is commonly tied at the waist by strings.
2.
Something which by its shape or use suggests an apron; as,
(a)
The fat skin covering the belly of a goose or duck. (Prov. Eng.)
(b)
A piece of leather, or other material, to be spread before a person riding on an outside seat of a vehicle, to defend him from the rain, snow, or dust; a boot. "The weather being too hot for the apron."
(c)
(Gun.) A leaden plate that covers the vent of a cannon.
(d)
(Shipbuilding) A piece of carved timber, just above the foremost end of the keel..
(e)
A platform, or flooring of plank, at the entrance of a dock, against which the dock gates are shut.
(f)
A flooring of plank before a dam to cause the water to make a gradual descent.
(g)
(Mech.) The piece that holds the cutting tool of a planer.
(h)
(Plumbing) A strip of lead which leads the drip of a wall into a gutter; a flashing.
(i)
(Zool.) The infolded abdomen of a crab.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Apron" Quotes from Famous Books



... my mother's side said when I was a little fellow that she was a cook and that she would bring stuff up to the cabin where the little niggers were locked up and feed them through the crack. She would hide it underneath her apron. She wasn't supposed to do it. All the little niggers were kept in one house when the old folks were working in the field. There were six or ...
— Slave Narratives: Arkansas Narratives - Arkansas Narratives, Part 6 • Works Projects Administration

... laboured they were many: when a foundation was laid, the workmen were treated to drink; they were treated to drink when the walls were levelled; they were treated to drink when the building was finished; they were treated to drink when an apprentice joined the squad; treated to drink when his apron was washed; treated to drink when his "time was out;" and occasionally they learned to treat one another to drink. At the first house upon which we were engaged as a slim apprentice boy, the workmen had a royal founding-pint, and two whole glasses of whisky came to our ...
— Leading Articles on Various Subjects • Hugh Miller

... reminder, and then the girls began to plan their "nice time." "I'll wash the breakfast dishes, Ruth, while you make the beds, you tuck the counterpane in so smoothly and have the pillows so straight," and Agnes, with sleeves pinned up and crash apron on, began her work. Her heart was very light, and as ...
— 'Our guy' - or, The elder brother • Mrs. E. E. Boyd

... erst beneath a tree Sung Bumkinet and Bowzybee, And Blouzelind and Marian bright, In apron blue or apron white, Now write my sonnets in a book, For ...
— Life And Letters Of John Gay (1685-1732) • Lewis Melville

... drove on. The cab had no apron, the snow fell on us in big flakes, and the wind, especially on the Neva, pierced us through and through. I began to feel as though we had been driving for a long time, that for ages we had been suffering, and that ...
— The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... window, Hugh looked out into the yard, where the shrubbery and trees were just discernible in the grayish light of the December moon. "That's a big drift by the lower gate," he continued; "and queer shaped, too. Come see, mother. Isn't that a shawl, or an apron, or something blowing ...
— Bad Hugh • Mary Jane Holmes

... of her wraps, fluffing her mahogany-colored hair where the hat had restricted it, lighted a tiny stove off in the tiny kitchenette and enveloped herself in a blue-bib-top apron. Her movements were short and full of caprice, and when she set the table, brushing his chair as she passed and repassed, lights came out in her eyes when she dared raise her lids ...
— Every Soul Hath Its Song • Fannie Hurst

... creature, blond and pink-cheeked, in a blue-checked apron besmeared with grease and flour, came sulkily into her mother's presence. Seeing Mary Carmichael, she grasped the skirt of the greasy apron with the sleight of hand of a prestidigitateur and pleated ...
— Judith Of The Plains • Marie Manning

... and knocked the gun from his grasp. Being an expert wrestler, he closed, and threw his antagonist; but he was speedily overturned, when the Indian, uttering the customary yell of triumph, began feeling for his knife. Its hilt was entangled in a woman's apron, which the savage had tied round his waist; and this apparent trivial circumstance saved the prostrate hunter. During the search, Morgan had seized his antagonist's fingers with his teeth, a position in which he used all becoming exertions to keep them. Meanwhile he assisted in the search for the ...
— Heroes and Hunters of the West • Anonymous

... as harsh language as Katie dared use; but she frowned fearfully, and a tuft of hair, rising from her head like a waterspout, made her look so fierce that Ruth seemed to be frightened, and ran away with her apron ...
— Dotty Dimple's Flyaway • Sophie May

... time she saw him, she thought his large brown eyes were marvellously handsome, and that he had a very pleasant way of speaking to her. She always watched for the ship in which he came, and was very particular to have on a clean apron when she was likely to meet him. She looked at her own eyes in a bit of broken looking-glass, and wondered whether they seemed as handsome to him as his eyes did to her. In her own opinion she had rather pretty eyes, and she was not mistaken; for the Scriptural ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866 • Various

... cleanliness! She was so obtrusively, aggressively, immaculately clean, that the like of her had never before dazzled the eyes of the benighted Southern visitors. Her lilac print gown was glossy from the press of the iron; the hands folded across the snowy apron were puffed and lined from recent parboiling; her face shone like a mirror from a generous use of good yellow soap. White stockings showed above her black felt slippers; her hair—red streaked with grey—was plastered down on each ...
— Big Game - A Story for Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... gone, and she must die, Farewell, then! I wish you well! Nay, listen! listen! those things, Those few old things I've left behind me, Within my trunk safely arc stored. That bracelet of gold, The prayer-book you gave me, Pray wrap them up together in my little apron, And I will send to fetch them. Yet stay! Beneath the pillow You'll find my little bonnet— Who knows? Maybe you'd like to keep it To remind you of our love! Farewell! Good-bye! ...
— La Boheme • Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica

... and Naomi called after him, "You bring back a little bear for me to play with," whereat they all laughed, but the laughter was very near tears. Indeed Mam threw her apron over her head ...
— Rodney, the Ranger - With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield • John V. Lane

... furrows if you drew it deep. My arms used to ache as if they'd been pounded, with the jar of them stones. They used to tell us children a story how Satan, he flew over the earth a-sowing it with rocks and stones, and as he was passing over our county a hole bu'st through his leather apron and he lost his whole load right slam there. I could 'a' p'inted out the very spot where the heft on it fell. Ten Stone meadow, so-called. Ten million stone! I was pickin' stone in that field all ...
— The Desert and The Sown • Mary Hallock Foote

... first days of a child's life, he should be sponged in a warm room, with water at blood heat. In removing the garments, the mother should roll the infant gently from side to side, rather than lift him bodily. It is well to have a flannel cloth or apron ready to cover the child when it is being undressed. The baby's face should be washed in clear water, firmly and thoroughly with a damp cloth, and dried by patting with the towel. Then soap should be added to ...
— Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife • Marion Mills Miller

... missed being beautiful, and in missing it was not even pretty. But when Stroeve spoke of Chardin it was not without reason, and she reminded me curiously of that pleasant housewife in her mob-cap and apron whom the great painter has immortalised. I could imagine her sedately busy among her pots and pans, making a ritual of her household duties, so that they acquired a moral significance; I did not suppose that she was clever or could ever be amusing, but there was something ...
— The Moon and Sixpence • W. Somerset Maugham

... one day taking hold of some fowls one by one, tied some strips of an apron round their throats, and then let them go. The learned men having assembled round the Cogia, said, 'What was the matter with these fowls?' Said the Cogia, 'They merely went into mourning ...
— The Turkish Jester - or, The Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi • Nasreddin Hoca

... the shoes were off, the handkerchiefs tied on, and the two tired children cuddled up in their wigwam, with Kitty's apron over their shoulders ...
— Harper's Young People, September 21, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... during the spring that followed our return from London, I had strolled out with Rubens, and was bowling my hoop towards one of the lodges when a poor woman passed by on the drive (which was a public road through the park), her apron to her face, weeping bitterly. I stopped her, and asked what was the matter, and finally made out that she had been to some sale at a farmhouse near, where a certain large blanket had "gone for" five shillings. That she had scraped five shillings together, and had ...
— A Flat Iron for a Farthing - or Some Passages in the Life of an only Son • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... filthy and gratuitous expression my way. Silently I stepped back from the mess room, untied my apron, and meant to go in and try to face him down. But at that juncture, my courage failed me, and instead of inviting the rough-neck out on deck, as I had tried to force myself to do, I hurried to ...
— Tramping on Life - An Autobiographical Narrative • Harry Kemp

... her doctor, as he introduced into her presence a little figure in nurse's cap and apron. "You said I needed care,—more care than I was receiving. I answered that my old nurse could give it, and you objected that she or someone else must look after Miss Postlethwaite. I did not see the necessity, but I never contradict a doctor. So I yielded to ...
— The Golden Slipper • Anna Katharine Green

... afresh; they shook off every speck of wayside dust; straightened the little shawls (or large neck-kerchiefs, call them which you will) that were spread over their shoulders, pinned below the throat, and confined at the waist by their apron-strings; and then putting on their hats again, and picking up their baskets, they prepared to walk decorously ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. I • Elizabeth Gaskell

... Hannibal was most interested to see what Br'er Rabbit was doing. Br'er Rabbit had on a li'l' apron, and he kept bringing things in his market-basket. Then he cooked the things over a fire in the bushes, and when it got to be late in the afternoon, he spread a tablecloth on a big stump and ...
— The Book of Stories for the Storyteller • Fanny E. Coe

... Farrell greeted him and his comrades with her best smiles; and Nelly observed her closely, as she stood laughing and talking among them. Sir William's sister was in uniform, if it could be called a uniform. She wore a nurse's cap and apron over a pale blue dress of some soft crapey material. The cap was a square of fine lawn, two corners of which were fastened under the chin with a brooch consisting of one large pearl. The open throat showed a single ...
— Missing • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... close by, so she knelt down and bathed her hands and face; and as she rose up she caught sight of herself in the pool, and for a moment she scarcely knew herself, for she was dressed so grandly. She had on a pink satin gown and a white satin apron with cherry-coloured bows, and a gauze cap, and red shoes with ...
— Little Folks (Septemeber 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... put her apron to her eyes; she did not cry much into it, or wet it with her tears—but under its cover she peeped at Mr Wentworth, and, encouraged by his looks, which did not seem to promise any immediate catastrophe, went ...
— The Perpetual Curate • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

... green leaf in this country is a dock-leaf; if one holds it before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over one's head in rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella, for it is so immensely large. The burdock never grows alone, but where there grows one there always grow several: it is a great delight, and all this ...
— A Christmas Greeting • Hans Christian Andersen

... to-day. No man is a success who has not a fixed sign post, an aim in life to attain unto. A man should get that amount of education that will best fit him for the performance and attainment of his object in life. Too much Greek will do you no good with a white apron on. I do not say that you should not study Greek if you intend to fill a chair in some institution of learning. I do not say that you should not read medicine if you intend to become a physician, or law if you desire to follow the profession. If we watch our chances, and take ...
— Twentieth Century Negro Literature - Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating - to the American Negro • Various

... Dent was not observing him, he passed one end of the string about the step-ladder. Tying it securely, he fastened the other end to Susan's apron strings in such a manner that ...
— Bob the Castaway • Frank V. Webster

... was the house-parlourmaid and a sedate person. The first cab drove away as soon as its door was closed and the cabman mounted to his seat. Louisa looking wholly unprofessional without her nurse's cap and apron and wearing a tailor-made navy blue costume and a hat with a wing in it, entered the second cab followed by Edward intensely suggesting private life and possible connection with a Bank. The second cab followed the first and Feather having lost her ...
— The Head of the House of Coombe • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... is similar to that of Malekula, as is plainly shown by the natives' dress. The men wear the bark belt and the nambas, which they buy on Malekula; the dress of the women is the same as that worn in central Malekula, and consists of an apron of pandanus or some similar fibre, wound several times round the waist; this forms a thick roll, not unlike ballet skirts, but more graceful. It is a pretty dress, though somewhat scanty, and the "skirts" ...
— Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific • Felix Speiser

... vexes my children." But when Elias whispered "Sit wider!" says she, "Ay! the table will soon be too big for the children, and you thought it would be too small;" and having delivered this with forced calmness, she put up her apron the next moment, ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

... talk he gained the favor of Tot, so that she consented to walk with him. Tulee often applied her apron to her eyes, as she watched the little creature holding by his finger, and stepping along in childish fashion, turning her toes inward. When she disappeared through the Deacon's front door, she sat down and cried outright. "I love that little picaninny," sobbed she. "I've tended her ever ...
— A Romance of the Republic • Lydia Maria Francis Child

... day. And with him, at meal times, or after supper in the sitting room, she was always cheerful and good-humored. But he had heard her sigh at her work, and once, when she thought herself unobserved, he saw her wipe her eyes with her apron. ...
— Keziah Coffin • Joseph C. Lincoln

... veered and frisked about; then at the ninth revolution or turn, without touching them any more, maturely perpending the manner of their motion, she very demurely waited on their repose and cessation from any further stirring. In sequel whereof she pulled off one of her wooden pattens, put her apron over her head, as a priest uses to do his amice when he is going to sing mass, and with a kind of antique, gaudy, party-coloured string knit it under her neck. Being thus covered and muffled, she whiffed off a lusty good draught out of the borachio, took three several ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... was thinking of ladies in velvet dresses and diamonds, who could talk wittily of pictures and theatres and books, who could amuse him and distract him. And meanwhile she went about in her old stuff dress, her cotton apron and rolled-up sleeves, cooking and washing and cleaning—for her child and for him. She felt through every nerve that he was constantly aware of details of dress or menage that jarred upon him; she ...
— Fenwick's Career • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... sheepish, and ashamed, and yet hopeful of returning strength. That's art, a simile like that is.—Prudence writes every day, and you hide the letters. And Aunt Grace sneaks around like a convict with her hand under her apron. And you look as heavy-laden as if you were carrying Connie's conscience around ...
— Prudence Says So • Ethel Hueston

... Twins and their father neared the "wee bit hoosie," Tam came bounding down the brae to meet them, and in less time than it takes to tell it Jean had run into the house, taken off her Sabbath dress, and put on her old one, with her kitchen apron over it, had mended the fire and heated the broth, and the little family was seated about the table eating their frugal meal with appetites sharpened by ...
— The Scotch Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... the dwarf, "when I dance it;" and he thereupon tucked up the little leathern apron in which he worked, and performed some curious antics ...
— The Brownies and Other Tales • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... at the door. She had doffed her kitchen apron and her face was slightly flushed—from the heat of the range, he knew—as she smiled at Consuello ...
— Spring Street - A Story of Los Angeles • James H. Richardson

... lived for!" exclaimed Westerling. "Our infantry is starting up the apron of Engadir! We held back the fire of the heavy guns concentrated for the purpose of supporting the men with an outburst. Three hundred heavy guns pouring in their shells on a space of two acres! We're tearing ...
— The Last Shot • Frederick Palmer

... ivied porch shall spring Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew; And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing In russet-gown and apron blue. ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various

... some brushes, a task her soul abhorred, for it was almost impossible to avoid some stain upon her apron or her hands; though, to guard against the latter, she wore gloves. The corners of Miss Ruth's mouth were drawn down and her eyebrows lifted up, and her whole face was a protest against her work. On her easel was a canvas, where she had begun a ...
— John Ward, Preacher • Margaret Deland

... everything,—that's what surprises me. But laws, John, it isn't the sharp ones that gets the best off. You was never sharp, but you're as smirk and smooth as though you came out of a band-box. I am glad to see you, John, so I am." And she put her apron up to her eyes ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope

... stood and filled the place. His huge hands and his jolly face Were red. He had a mouth to quaff Pint after pint: a sounding laugh, But wheezy at the end, and oft His eyes bulged outwards and he coughed. Aproned he stood from chin to toe. The apron's vertical long flow Warped grandly outwards to display His hale, round belly hung midway, Whose apex was securely bound With apron-strings wrapped round and round. Outside, Miss Thompson, small and staid, Felt, as she always felt, afraid Of this huge man who laughed so loud And drew the notice ...
— Georgian Poetry 1920-22 • Various

... age, declared that his master had known Stradivari, and that he was fond of talking about him. He was, he said, tall and thin, habitually wore, in winter, a cap of white wool, and one of cotton in summer. He wore over his clothes an apron of white leather when he worked, and as he was always working, his costume scarcely ever varied. He had acquired more than competency by labour and economy, for the inhabitants of Cremona were accustomed to say, 'As rich as Stradivari!'"[29] The house he occupied stands in the Piazza Roma, ...
— The Violin - Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators • George Hart

... ham and her salt fish, and drinks her coffee in silence, while her husband reads one newspaper, and puts another under his elbow; and then, perhaps, she washes the cups and saucers. Her carriage is ordered at eleven; till that hour she is employed in the pastry-room, her snow-white apron protecting her mouse-coloured silk. Twenty minutes before her carriage should appear, she retires to her chamber, as she calls it, shakes, and folds up her still snow-white apron, smooths her rich dress, and with ...
— Domestic Manners of the Americans • Fanny Trollope

... shoulders, and tender untroubled bosom. I gazed at her, and how dear and near she was already to me! It seemed to me I had known her a long while and had never known anything nor lived at all till I met her.... She was wearing a dark and rather shabby dress and an apron; I would gladly, I felt, have kissed every fold of that dress and apron. The tips of her little shoes peeped out from under her skirt; I could have bowed down in adoration to those shoes.... 'And here I am sitting before her,' I thought; 'I have made acquaintance with her ... ...
— The Torrents of Spring • Ivan Turgenev

... exclaimed with a taunting laugh; "take French leave from the old lady. You are far better able to judge what you like than she is, and she can't expect to tie you to her apron-strings ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston

... was almost dark enough to light the lamps. Jack felt better satisfied about his appearance when he found how dark and shadowy the parlor was; and he felt still better when he saw his father dressed as if he were going over to work at the forge, all but the leather apron. ...
— Crowded Out o' Crofield - or, The Boy who made his Way • William O. Stoddard

... woman), and were at work on the sexual organs, the god wished to see his consort's handiwork. She, however, was cross, and persisted in concealing what she had made. Ever since then women wear an apron of pandanus-leaves and men go naked. (A. Bastian, Inselgruppen ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... came from around the back of the house to greet Strong, and Jane, who had been busy in the kitchen preparing supper, came to meet the young officer, wiping her hands on her apron. ...
— The Space Pioneers • Carey Rockwell

... borne. She had retired, as I have said, to her room, and when she supposed all the family were gone to bed, (which would have been the case if Mrs. E——— and I had not walked into the garden,) she undressed herself, and tied her apron over her head; which, descending below her waist, gave her the shapeless figure I have spoken of. With this and a white under petticoat and slippers, for she had taken out her buckles and put them at the servant maid's door, I suppose as a keepsake, and aided ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... her own house to shed her apron and wash her hands, and then sallied over to view Mr. Clegg. The two friends mounted the stair together, and ...
— Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop • Anne Warner

... road came some two hundred of the warriors and braves of the Ojibbeways, intent upon all manner of rejoicing. At their head marched Chief Henry Prince, Chief "Kechiwis" (or the Big Apron) "Sou Souse" (or Little Long Ears); there was also "We-we-tak-gum Na-gash" (or the Man who flies round the Feathers), and Pahaouza-tau-ka, if not present, was represented by at least a dozen individuals just as fully qualified to separate ...
— The Great Lone Land - A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America • W. F. Butler

... ither stanewe ca'd it the Cat's-lugthere used to be the root o' an aik tree therethat will do!canny now, ladcanny nowtak tent and tak timeLord bless ye, tak timeVera weel!Now ye maun get to Bessy's apron, that's the muckle braid flat blue staneand then, I think, wi' your help and the tow thegither, I'll win at ye, and then we'll be able to get up the ...
— The Antiquary, Complete • Sir Walter Scott

... become, under providence, the instrument of preserving my fellow countrymen from much grief and trumpet-sounding and throat-cutting. Instead of pursuing that chance, two weeks ago—as was my duty—I have dangled at your apron-strings, in the vain hope of softening the most variable and hardest heart in the world. Now, clearly, I have not the right to ...
— The Line of Love - Dizain des Mariages • James Branch Cabell

... called after them, and they were very sorry to leave him. Indeed, the Tin Woodman began to cry, but fortunately remembered that he might rust, and so dried his tears on Dorothy's apron. ...
— The Wonderful Wizard of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... at the travellers, and, lifting her apron to her eyes, left the apartment; while the servant-maid leaned her head against the window-frame and began to sob as if her heart would break. In a short time Bess returned with her husband, whom she had found in ...
— The Poor Gentleman • Hendrik Conscience

... the shop, there would be seen his face, or that of his elder brother, peering down. A guttural sound, and the tip-tap of bast slippers beating the narrow wooden stairs, and he would stand before one without coat, a little bent, in leather apron, with sleeves turned back, blinking—as if awakened from some dream of boots, or like an owl surprised in daylight and annoyed ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... at her for a minute in silence, and then said, "Well, she cannot expect to keep you tied to her apron-string all your life. Of course, if you could get a quiet place near home it would be better;" for Aunt Ellen at that moment was asking herself the same question that Esther Odell had asked her schoolfellows an hour or two ...
— Kate's Ordeal • Emma Leslie

... them," James said eagerly. He went out to the kitchen, but Emma was not out. She was sitting sewing in a gingham apron. ...
— 'Doc.' Gordon • Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman

... was in a fever of hesitation. She smelt, so to say, that there was something underneath the offer which was not to her advantage; but then the thought of thirty crowns a month, of all those coins chinking in her apron, falling to her, as it were, from the skies, without her doing anything for it, filled ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant

... as if she cared. A pretty enough picture she made, too, flung down on the old black settle, one well-shaped hand pinching the arm as if it had been—John Boynton's!—the other as vigorously clenched on a harmless check-apron that showed no disposition to get away; her bright red lips trembling a little, and her gray eyes suspiciously shiny about the lashes, while her soft black hair had fallen from part of its restraints on to the gay calico dress she wore, and her foot beat ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 17, March, 1859 • Various

... is calling for Tommy," she announced; "and before he goes I must give you each a bit of lunch." And whipping open the oven door with a corner of her apron, she drew out a couple of puffy apple turnovers, all fragrant with cinnamon and gummy with sugar, and sizzling with hot apple-juice. Tommy glanced slyly at her as he ...
— Master Sunshine • Mrs. C. F. Fraser

... belly of the machine; then, going round to the back, I watched the same letters rising again in a close, slow procession, and sorting themselves by themselves at the top in readiness to answer again to the tapping, tapping of a man in a once-white apron. And while I was watching all that I could somehow, by a faculty which we have, at the same time see pigeons far overhead, arriving and arriving out of the murk from ...
— The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories • Arnold Bennett

... poor Dan's fate, and of the long list of casualties that had preceded it, that no one noticed the entrance of a young girl, rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed, who had come to help with the supper. There was an air of peculiar freshness about her, and as she stood in her blue dress and white apron near the door, her ruddy brown hair shining in the lamp-light, the effect was like the opening of a window in a close room. Her step was arrested in the act of coming forward, and, as she paused to listen, the pretty colour was quite blotted ...
— A Bookful of Girls • Anna Fuller

... the corner of her apron across the corner of her eyes, disappointment written deeply in every line ...
— Captain Pott's Minister • Francis L. Cooper

... her mind that Janet was with John Jones, an' so she took the Comrade an' went after them. Then when the wind came up, she lost her head, an' so—" Mrs. Jo G. at this juncture hid her face in her checked apron and silently rocked back and forth. She could not think of the night and storm, the lonely, frightened girl dashed hither and yon in the little boat, without breaking down. Life near the dunes was stern and the people had learned to accept ...
— Janet of the Dunes • Harriet T. Comstock

... back, Doctor John, says NURSE MARY. Today, after sweeping and scrubbing a little, and baking a Christmas cake, I just ironed out a few pieces, my best cap and apron, and the likes of that, and before I had finished, I give you word my back began to ache. Now what do you make of it? And then, my joints—stiff! Yes, Dr. John, stiff! How am I to do my work with stiff joints, I'd like ...
— Up the Chimney • Shepherd Knapp

... gave him at once a sense of homeyness. She led the way through the wide hall and up the front stairs, crisp and competent in her big white apron and black gown. ...
— Contrary Mary • Temple Bailey

... in these, and, when he had put them all on, and had clasped a leather belt round his waist, and wound an apron about his head, as lassies do to protect themselves from the rain or sun, and put the milk-maid's bonnet on top of all, I warrant even his own mother would not ...
— Tales From Scottish Ballads • Elizabeth W. Grierson

... They were all poorly clad, and many of them in rags. The women, with the last surviving instinct of the female heart, had tried to decorate themselves; and here and there I could observe a bit of bright color on bonnet or apron; but the bonnets represented the fashions of ten years past, and the aprons were too often frayed and darned, and relics of some former, more opulent owners. There were multitudes of children, but they were without the gambols which characterize the young of all animals; and there ...
— Caesar's Column • Ignatius Donnelly

... of rural school-mistresses who would take social rank with the curate, he thought it a mistake; a school-mistress ought not to be above drinking her cup of tea in a tidy cottage with the parents of her pupils: he should prefer a capable young woman in a clean holland apron with pockets, and no gloves, to any poor young lady of genteel tastes who would expect to associate on equal terms with his wife and daughters. Then, cookery for the poor. Here Mr. Jones fell inadvertently into a trap. He said that ...
— The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax • Harriet Parr

... another person, whom he had liked so much that she could do what she pleased with him, even to passing her hand over his back and taking him by the tail, holding him in her hands, or putting him in her apron—caresses of a kind that parrots do not usually permit. Nothing astonished him or offended him. He proved very inconstant toward her, and now, while better disposed toward the other girl, he is furious against this one. A third miss has come to capture his affection; and when he has ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892 • Various

... began the illegitimate branch; appearing fresh and strong in her, as she displayed her portly, prosperous figure, sitting at the door of her pork shop in a light colored apron, watching the central market, where the hunger of a people muttered, the age-long battle of the Fat and the Lean, the lean Florent, her brother-in-law, execrated, and set upon by the fat fishwomen and the fat shopwomen, and whom even the fat pork-seller herself, honest, but ...
— Doctor Pascal • Emile Zola

... disturb him. He was like a being out of another region. He took off his coat and bared his arms; he put on a long white apron, and washed his hands elaborately again, and then once more examined his patient. His face was opposite to Thyrsis, and the latter watched his expression, breathless with dread. But the doctor only ...
— Love's Pilgrimage • Upton Sinclair

... a huge apron and settled on the back piazza, surrounded with pans and baskets. Ardelia stood by, and handed her things, until she ...
— Bambi • Marjorie Benton Cooke

... cheery son of the house, dressed in a cook's cap and apron, pauses in his work to join in our conversation. He tells us how he has been in London, and can speak English, and is enthusiastic about the satiric journal which Mr. Punch publishes weekly. M. AUBOURG fils who is a truthful likeness, on a large scale, of M. DAUBRAY, of the ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., August 23, 1890. • Various

... impressed by his surroundings but not attracted by the youth, who rolled up his sleeves and encased himself in large oilskin apron before he opened the crate. Michael sprang out and staggered about on legs which had not walked for days. This particular two-legged god was uninteresting. He was as cold as the concrete floor, as methodical as a machine; and in such fashion he ...
— Michael, Brother of Jerry • Jack London

... an interesting person letting lodgings in Whitechapel. She was not attractive physically. Her chief drapery was an apron. This, indeed, was fairly adequate before. But—I think she was like the ostrich who sticks his head ...
— Walking-Stick Papers • Robert Cortes Holliday

... down wrong side upward, and placed it, with a "God save the ship and all in her," in the proper position. But Joan was thoroughly unnerved by the ominous incident, and she sat down with her apron over her head, rocking herself slowly to her inaudible prayer; while Denas, with a resentful feeling she did not try to understand, gathered up the pieces of linen and flannel her mother ...
— A Singer from the Sea • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... Cat trotted towards the door, she soon made it plain that she didn't intend to leave the kitchen unless her mistress went with her. She came back and twitched Mrs. Green's apron gently with her claws. Then she ran to the doorway again and ...
— The Tale of Miss Kitty Cat - Slumber-Town Tales • Arthur Scott Bailey

... paint several pictures, amongst others a head of Christ, an original conception, life-size, and a view of Bury; but not obtaining sufficient employment at portraits to occupy his time, or give him the prospect of a steady income, he had the good sense to resume his leather apron, and go on working at his honest trade of a blacksmith; employing his leisure hours in engraving his picture of "The Forge," since published. He was induced to commence the engraving by the following circumstance. A Manchester picture-dealer, to whom he showed the painting, let ...
— Self Help • Samuel Smiles

... stared at her in a solid wall of discomfiture, and Peggy retreated hastily, and paused behind a harberry fence to have her laugh out, before repairing to the shed where the gardening tools were stored. Then she unrolled an apron, tied it over her skirt, rolled up her sleeves to protect the starched little cuffs, took a rake in one hand and a hoe in the other, and surveyed the prospect. With ambition untempered by ignorance, she had openly avowed her intention of possessing ...
— More About Peggy • Mrs G. de Horne Vaizey

... louder bang than before, and the boy entered in a soap-box on wheels, supposed to be a sledge, and drawn by a dog, an Irish terrier, which being red had been called William Rufus. His hat was tied over his ears with a tape from his mother's apron, and he wore a long pair of his father's knitted stockings which covered his boots and came up to ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine

... started for New York to be inaugurated President, he stopped to see her. She donned a new white cap and a clean apron in honor of the visit, remarking to a neighbor woman who dropped in that she supposed "these great folks expected something a little extra." It was the last meeting of mother and son. She was eighty-three at that time and "her boy" fifty-five. ...
— Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... in a white apron, presently stood before the Governor ready to take orders. The table was strewn with used dishes and food, debris left there by previous diners. The amateur waiter was not sure whether the Governor and his staff had eaten or were ready ...
— The Fighting Edge • William MacLeod Raine

... very near now," Freddy remarked, looking over the apron of the cab. "My! won't dada be surprised to see me drive up in a cab with you! I ...
— Berenice • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... people had a tradition that it was built in windy weather by the Devil, who, having only one apron full of stones, and the breaking of one of his apron-strings causing him to lose some of them as he flew over Casterton Fell, he had only enough left to build ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor

... Alston's. She wore a coarse dress of uncolored homespun cotton, of the plainest and scantiest make, low in the neck, short in the sleeves and skirt. Her feet and head were bare. A sack of like material with her dress was tied about the waist, apron-like. This was to receive immediately the pickings from the hand. When filled it was emptied in a pick-basket, holding with a little packing fifty or sixty pounds. This small basket was kept in the picker's vicinity, being moved forward whenever the sack was taken ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various

... he met a man in a paper hat and a white apron. He was pushing a cart filled with a kind of fruit that Pinocchio had ...
— Pinocchio in Africa • Cherubini

... words he had uttered in her hearing, implying, as she thought, a distrust of the devotion of his friends to the cause of freedom. She declared money he should have, and immediately drew from under her apron two small bags full of specie, probably the earnings of several years, "Take these, General," said she, "you need them and I can do without them." This offering of a benevolent heart, accompanied with words of kindness and encouragement, General ...
— Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical • C. L. Hunter

... they began to help her with her dress I covered my face—I could not help it. There was such a stillness now that I could hear her beads chink at her girdle. When I looked again, she was ready, with her sweet neck uncovered: all round her was black but the headsman, who wore a white apron over his velvet, and she, in her beauty, and oh! her face was so fair and delicate and her eyes so tender and joyous. And as her ladies looked at her, they sobbed piteously. 'Ne ...
— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson

... a white apron came to him from the other side of the room. It was Buttle's wife, who had ...
— The Shuttle • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... negro-woman. A sample was here in Lance's doorway. A bandanna of red and yellow made a turban for her head; a clean brownish calico dress stood crisply about a solid and waistless figure, and a fresh white apron covered it voluminously in front; a folded white handkerchief lay, fichu-wise, around the creases of a fat black neck; a basket covered with a cloth was on her arm. She stood and smiled as if to give the treat time to have its effect on Lance. "Look who's here!" was in large print all ...
— Joy in the Morning • Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews

... rose to their feet again to meet a proud, glad smile from the eyes of the kind old man; and though Margot's face was buried in her apron, and honest Jean was not ashamed to let the tears run down his weatherbeaten face, there was no attempt made to hinder or to sadden the eager lads. They kissed their good nurse with many protestations of ...
— In the Days of Chivalry • Evelyn Everett-Green

... with a gleam of interest. Beneath the demure bib of her professional apron there beat still a woman's heart. Sister Renee wanted to tell me the ...
— Dross • Henry Seton Merriman

... and, stranger than all, oldest little lady in the world. Lady Bellair was of childlike stature, and quite erect, though ninety years of age; the tasteful simplicity of her costume, her little plain white silk bonnet, her grey silk dress, her apron, her grey mittens, and her Cinderella shoes, all admirably contrasted with the vast and flaunting splendour of her companion, not less than her ladyship's small yet exquisitely proportioned form, her highly-finished extremities, and her ...
— Henrietta Temple - A Love Story • Benjamin Disraeli



Words linked to "Apron" :   golf, paved surface, bib, landing field, footlights, forestage, theatre stage, theater stage, apron string, flying field, land site, field, golf game, prompter's box, prompt box, airfield, site, proscenium, protective garment, fairway



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