napkin

[ nap-kin ]

noun

1. a small piece of cloth or paper, usually square, for use in wiping the lips and fingers and to protect the clothes while eating.
2. sanitary napkin.
3. Chiefly British. a diaper.
4. Scot. and North England. a handkerchief.
5. Scot. a kerchief or neckerchief.

napkin

/ ˈnæpkɪn /

noun

1. Also calledtable napkin a usually square piece of cloth or paper used while eating to protect the clothes, wipe the mouth, etc; serviette
2. rare.
   a similar piece of cloth used for example as a handkerchief or headscarf
3. a more formal name for nappy 1
4. a less common term for sanitary towel

Word History and Origins

Origin of napkin¹

1350–1400; Middle English, equivalent to nape tablecloth (< Middle French nappe < Latin mappa napkin) + -kin; map

Word History and Origins

Origin of napkin¹

C15: from Old French, from nape tablecloth, from Latin mappa small cloth, towel; see map

Example Sentences

The instructions from City Hall were: “You could draw a plan on a napkin and we’ll say yes to it,” recalled Ginger Brown, the head of a business group in the city’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

From Slate

“I can be the napkin lady,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times

Eventually drawn to country music thanks to Brad Paisley and Eric Church, he moved to Nashville after college to try songwriting; the new album’s title track quotes a bar napkin someone stuffed in a tip jar during one early gig.

From Los Angeles Times

They came for the face painting and food, and their concerns are more mundane: teaching kids to read, paying the bills, finding a napkin to clean Popsicle juice off chubby toddler legs.

From Los Angeles Times

Carlos first sketched it on a napkin; five weeks later, a precisely orchestrated team built the elaborate tent, including a team of seven who draped the frame with 7,000 yards of fabric.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• cloth
• towel