drape

Meanings

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

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

Etymology

From Middle English drape (“a drape”, noun), from Old French draper (“to drape; to full cloth”), from drap (“cloth, drabcloth”), from Late Latin drappus, drapus (“drabcloth, kerchief”), a word first recorded in the Capitularies of Charlemagne, probably from Frankish *drapi, *drāpi (“that which is fulled, drabcloth”, literally “that which is struck or for striking”), from Proto-Germanic *drapiz (“a strike, hit, blow”) and Proto-Germanic *drēpiz (“intended for striking, to be beaten”), both from *drepaną (“to beat, strike”), 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 (“to strike”), German treffen (“to meet”), Swedish dräpa (“to slay”). More at drub.