drape

Meanings

Noun

• A curtain; a drapery.
• The way in which fabric falls or hangs.
• A member of a youth subculture distinguished by its sharp dress, especially peg-leg pants (1950s: e.g. Baltimore, MD). Antonym: square
• A dress made from an entire piece of cloth, without having pieces cut away as in a fitted garment.

Verb

• To cover or adorn with drapery or folds of cloth, or as with drapery
• To spread over, cover.
• To rail at; to banter.
• To make cloth.
• To design drapery, arrange its folds, etc., as for hangings, costumes, statues, etc.
• To hang or rest limply

Origin

• From Middle English drape ("a drape"), from Old French draper ("to drape; to full cloth"), from drap, from Late Latin drappus, drapus, a word first recorded in the Capitularies of Charlemagne, probably from Frankish ("that which is fulled, drabcloth"), from Proto-Germanic *drapiz ("a strike, hit, blow") and Proto-Germanic *drēpiz ("intended for striking, to be beaten"), both from *drepaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreb- ("to beat, crush, make or become thick"). Cognate with English drub ("to beat"), North Frisian dreep ("a blow"), Low German drapen, dräpen, German treffen ("to meet"), Swedish dräpa ("to slay"). More at drub.