English

Woman's wrapper

Candy wrappers

Noun

wrapper ‎(plural wrappers)

1. Something that is wrapped around something else as a cover or protection: a wrapping.
2. An outer garment; a loose robe or dressing gown.
   • 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, ‘William Wilson’:

     ‘Please to examine, at your leisure, the inner linings of the cuff of his left sleeve, and the several little packages which may be found in the somewhat capacious pockets of his embroidered morning wrapper.’

3. One who, or that which, wraps.

   He proved to be a remarkably efficient wrapper of parcels.

4. (object-oriented programming) A construct, such as a class or module, that serves to mediate access to another.

   We need a Perl wrapper for this C++ library.

Synonyms

• (construct that mediates access): adapter
• wrapper class
• primitive wrapper class

Usage notes

• In the computing sense, wrapper is often used attributively: one can speak of a “wrapper class”, a “wrapper object”, a “wrapper function”, and so on. More broadly, one can speak of the “wrapper pattern”, which is a general term for the creation and use of such wrappers.

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