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n. 1. A guide or companion whose purpose is to ensure propriety or restrict activity: "to see and feel the rough edges of the society ... without the filter of official chaperones" (Philip Taubman). 2. An older person who attends and supervises a social gathering for young people. 3. A person, especially an older or married woman, who accompanies a young unmarried woman in public. 4. Any of a diverse group of proteins that assist macromolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, to assemble and fold into the proper three-dimensional structure as they are being synthesized. Also called molecular chaperone. tr.v. chaper·oned, chaper·on·ing, chaper·ones To act as chaperone to or for. See Synonyms at accompany. [French chaperon, from chaperon, hood (since a respectable person who accompanies a young woman shields her from unwanted advances like a hood), from Old French, diminutive of chape, cape, head covering; see CHAPE.] chaper·on′age (-rō′nĭj) n. |
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