chaperone

Meanings

Noun

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

Verb

• To act as a chaperone.
• To work as a chaperone.

Origin

• See chaperon.