Apron : nm Un tablier is a vProtective clothing consisting of a piece of flexible material held by fasteners, which guarantees the front of the body.
It fits him like an apron to a cow : very bad.
Return your apron: in catering, to resign from a function, to resign (see below the origin of this expression).
Sapper apron : tprofuse pubic gosling (of a female).
– The expression “surrender”: refusing to continue one's service, quitting one's job, giving up.
It is common for a domestic worker, when he is tired of being exploited, to give up his apron.
Because when a servant wears an apron, it is quite logical that, to show his intention to stop, he takes it off and returns it to his employer. It didn't take much for this expression to take on the meaning of "resign" from its initial meaning, even for someone not wearing this piece of clothing.
According to the French lexicographer Lorédan Larchey (1831-1902), this expression appeared at the end of the XNUMXth century (it was said take off your apron a century before), at a time when the house staff actually wore the apron more easily than today.