poncho
Americannoun
plural
ponchos-
a blanketlike cloak with a hole in the center to admit the head, originating in South America, now often worn as a raincoat.
noun
-
a cloak of a kind originally worn in South America, made of a rectangular or circular piece of cloth, esp wool, with a hole in the middle to put the head through
Other Word Forms
- ponchoed adjective
Etymology
Origin of poncho
First recorded in 1710–20; from Latin American Spanish: further origin uncertain; perhaps from Araucanian pontho “woolen fabric”; perhaps from Old Spanish poncho “a mantle or cloak”; perhaps a back formation from ponchón “lazy, sluggish”; perhaps an alteration of unrecorded pochón, an augmentative of pocho “pale, faded,” and probably akin to pachón “phlegmatic, sluggish”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Wear a rain rain jacket or poncho instead.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2025
One soldier aided an older woman, her body wrapped in a poncho as the clouds thickened above.
From Barron's • Oct. 28, 2025
Her 'Queen Elizabeth walking around Balmoral' outfit, which saw her wear a gold poncho and grey knitted skirt with fluffy ducks attached to it, was one of her most memorable.
From BBC • Jan. 5, 2025
When we first came here, in ’64, I was dressed up in a poncho with a holster and a toy gun.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2024
In his hooded poncho, everything caked with mud, the boy’s face was impossible to make out.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.