lap definition

English lap definition

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /læp/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æp

Etymology 1

From Middle English lappe, from Old English læppa (“skirt or flap of a garment”), from Proto-Germanic *lappô (“cloth; rag”), of uncertain origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely”).^[1][2] Cognate with Dutch lap (“cloth; rag”), German Lappen (“cloth; lobe; flap”), Icelandic leppur (“rag; patch”).

Noun

lap (plural laps)

1. The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.
2. An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth.
3. The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered.
4. (figuratively) A place of rearing and fostering.
5. The upper legs of a seated person.

   The boy was sitting on his mother's lap.

6. (archaic, euphemistic) The female pudenda. [17th century]
7. (engineering) A component that overlaps or covers any portion of itself or of an adjacent component.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

lap (third-person singular simple present laps, present participle lapping, simple past and past participle lapped)

1. (transitive) To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.
   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     Her garment spreads, and laps him in the fold.

2. (transitive) To rest or recline in someone's lap, or as in a lap.
   • a. 1839, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Gog:

     to lap his head on lady's breast

References

Etymology 2

From Middle English lappen (“to fold, wrap”) from earlier wlappen (“to fold, wrap”), from Old English *wlappan, *wlæppan, *wlappian (“to wrap”), from Proto-Germanic *wlapp-, *wrapp- (“to wrap, fold, roll up, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend, turn”).

Cognate with Middle Dutch lappen (“to wrap up, embrace”), dialectal Danish vravle (“to wind”), Old Italian goluppare (“to wrap, fold up”) (from Germanic). Doublet of wrap. Also related to envelop, develop.

The sense of "to get a lap ahead (of someone) on a track" is from 1847, on notion of "overlapping." The noun meaning "a turn around a track" (1861) is from this sense.

Verb

lap (third-person singular simple present laps, present participle lapping, simple past and past participle lapped or (archaic) lapt)

1. (transitive) To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.

   to lap a piece of cloth

2. (transitive) to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up

   to lap a bandage around a finger

   • 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     About the paper […] I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk.

3. (transitive) to envelop, enfold

   lapped in luxury

4. (intransitive) to wind around
5. (transitive) To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.

   One laps roof tiles so that water can run off.

7. (transitive) To polish (a surface, especially metal or gemstone) with very fine abrasive to achieve smoothness and small dimensional changes.

   Hypernym: cut

   Coordinate term: grind

8. (intransitive) To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.

   The cloth laps back.

   The boats lap; the edges lap.

   • 1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musæum Regalis Societatis. Or A Catalogue & Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and Preserved at Gresham Colledge. […], London: […] W. Rawlins, for the author, →OCLC:

     The upper wings are opacous […] ; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a fly.

9. (transitive, sports, motor racing) To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.

   Antonym: unlap

10. To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

lap (plural laps)

1. The act or process of lapping.
2. That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another.

   the lap of a board

3. The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping.

   The second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.

4. The amount by which a slide valve at its half stroke overlaps a port in the seat, being equal to the distance the valve must move from its mid stroke position in order to begin to open the port. Used alone, lap refers to outside lap (see below).
5. (sports) One circuit around a race track.

   to run twenty laps

   to drive the fastest lap in qualifying

   to win by three laps

   • 2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     Alonso's second place moves him into a tie on points at the head of the championship with Sebastian Vettel, who was sixth in his Red Bull, passing Button, then Hamilton and finally Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg in quick succession in the closing laps.

6. (swimming) The traversal of one length of the pool, or (less commonly) one length and back again.

   to swim two laps

7. In card playing and other games, the points won in excess of the number necessary to complete a game;—so called when they are counted in the score of the following game.
8. A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
10. A piece of brass, lead, or other soft metal, used to hold a cutting or polishing powder in cutting glass, gems, etc. or in polishing cutlery or in toolmaking. It is usually in the form of a wheel or disk that revolves on a vertical axis.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English lappen, from Old English lapian, from Proto-Germanic *lapōną, *lapjaną (“to lick; lap”), from imitative Proto-Indo-European *leh₂b- (“to lap, lick”); akin to Old High German laffen (“to lick”), Old Norse lepja, Danish labe, Old Saxon lepil, German Löffel (“spoon”). Cognate with Latin lambere (“lick”). French lamper is a loanword from German. Compare Danish leffe, dialect German läffeln.

Verb

lap (third-person singular simple present laps, present participle lapping, simple past and past participle lapped or (archaic) lapt)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.

   Don’t lap your soup like that! You look like a dog.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.

   • 1644, Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises:

     The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily […] as they run along the shore.

2. (intransitive, of water) To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.
   • 1870, Alfred Tennyson, “The Passing of Arthur”, in The Holy Grail and Other Poems, London: Strahan and Co., […], →OCLC, page 144:

     I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

lap (countable and uncountable, plural laps)

1. The taking of liquid into the mouth with the tongue.
   • 1955, Ann Haven Morgan, Kinships of Animals and Man: A Textbook of Animal Biology, page 176:

     With each lap of its tongue a cat gathers up milk and throws it well back into the gateway of its throat […]

2. (obsolete, slang, uncountable) Liquor; alcoholic drink.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Further reading

• “laper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Bratchet, A. (1873), “laper”, in , Kitchin, G. W., transl., Etymological dictionary of the French language (Clarendon Press Series), 1st edition, London: Oxford/MacMillan and Co.

Etymology 4

Noun

lap (plural laps)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparoscopy.
2. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparotomy.

Derived terms

• ex-lap

Adjective

lap (not comparable)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparoscopic.

Derived terms

• lap choly

See also

• lap cheong

Anagrams

• ALP, APL, LPA, PAL, PLA, Pal, Pla, alp, pal

Afrikaans lap definition

Etymology

From Dutch lap, from Middle Dutch lap, from Old Dutch lap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lap/

Noun

lap (plural lappe, diminutive lappie)

1. A patch, a rag, a piece of cloth.
2. A plot, a tract (of ground).

Derived terms

• lappieskombers

Albanian lap definition

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *lapa. An onomatopoeic cognate to Greek λάπτω (lápto, “to lick”), Lithuanian lapth (“to swallow greedily”), Proto-Slavic *lopati (“to eat greedily”), and the like.^[1] Compare Italian allappare, Sicilian allippari.

Verb

lap (aorist lapa)

1. to slurp, lap up

Derived terms

• lëpij
• lëpis

References

Azerbaijani lap definition

Etymology

From Middle Mongol ᠯᠠᠪ (lab)^[1][2]. Compare Mongolian лав (lav, “clearly, actually, surely, evidently”).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adverb

lap

1. even (emphasizing a comparative or superlative)

   Lap yaxşı! ― Even better!^{[nt. 1]}

2. very
3. downright, right, immediately, directly used to emphasize the following phrase

   dənizin lap kənarında ― right at the seashore

Usage notes

Determiner

lap

1. very (the same; identical) (especially when used with həmin)

   lap həmin dəqiqə ― the very minute

   lap vaxtında ― at the right time

References

Further reading

• “lap” in Obastan.com.

Dutch lap definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɑp/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lap
• Rhymes: -ɑp

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch lap, lappe, from Old Dutch lap, from Proto-Germanic *lappa-, *lappô (“rag, cloth”), of uncertain origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely”).^[1][2] Cognate with German Lappen.

Noun

lap m (plural lappen, diminutive lapje n)

1. A rag, a piece of cloth.
2. A patch, a piece of cloth.
3. A slice of meat.
4. A plot, a tract (of ground).

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: lap
• Negerhollands: lap
• → Caribbean Javanese: lap
• → Indonesian: lap
• → Papiamentu: lapi

See also

• (rag): vod

References

Etymology 2

Probably from sense 1, which dialectically meant "blow, strike" and evolved into "stupidity." Or, possibly from an original sense of "lap up," referring to sloppy children, for which see English lap.

Noun

lap m (plural lappen, diminutive lapje n)

1. (obsolete, except in compounds) A bloke, dude, bum; especially a drunk or objectionable one.

Derived terms

Further reading

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “lap2”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Interjection

lap

1. (chiefly Belgium) exclamation of dismay, disappointment

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

lap

1. inflection of lappen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Anagrams

• pal

Hungarian lap definition

Etymology

From Proto-Uralic *lappɜ (“flat surface”), either directly or as a back-formation from lapos.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɒp]

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lap
• Rhymes: -ɒp

Noun

lap (plural lapok)

1. sheet (thin, flat piece of any solid material)
   • 2004, “Spárgatorta”, in Petőfi Népe‎^[3], volume 59, number 117:

     A leveles tésztát kinyújtjuk, a lapokat egymásra fektetjük, és még egyszer kinyújtjuk.

     Roll out the puff pastry dough, lay the sheets on top of each other, and roll out once more.

2. sheet (piece of paper, usually rectangular, that has been prepared for writing, printing or other uses)

   Synonyms: ív, papírlap

   • 1982, István Pintér, “A Veréb is akció”, in Somogyi Néplap‎^[4], volume 38, number 285:

     Kitépett egy lapot a noteszából, néhány sort írt rá.

     He tore a sheet from his notebook and wrote a couple of lines on it.

3. (proscribed, archaic) page (one side of a written or printed paper sheet)

   Synonym: oldal

   • 1868, Balázs Orbán, “Sugópatak zuhatagjai”, in A Székelyföld leírása:

     Mellékelt képünk ezen zuhatagot tünteti elő. (Lásd a 74. lapon.)

     The accompanying illustration shows this waterfall. (See page 74.)

4. newspaper, magazine, periodical (publication issued regularly)

   Hyponyms: hírlap, újság, folyóirat, magazin

   • 1930, “Újdonságok”, in Pápai Hírlap‎^[5], volume 27, number 45:

     Ezenkívül háziipari, iparművészeti, háztartási cikkeket olvasunk ebben az egyedülálló magyar női lapban.

     We can also read articles on homecrafts, applied arts and housekeeping in this unique Hungarian women's magazine.

5. greeting card, postcard (decorated card made of thick paper that is sent or given to someone)

   Hyponyms: üdvözlőlap, képeslap, levelezőlap

   • 1994, Tivadar Petercsák, chapter I, in A képes levelezőlap története‎^[6]:

     A lapok címzési oldalának jobb felső sarkába nyomtatták a sárga színű bélyeget.

     The yellow stamp was printed in the top right corner of the address side of the cards.

6. playing card (one piece out of a pack of cards used to play games)

   Synonym: kártyalap

   • 1992, György Somlyó, “Azután”, in Holmi‎^[7], volume 4, number 4:

     A pakliban egyetlen cinkelt lap sem található.

     There isn't a single marked card in the deck.

7. (computing) page (one of many documents opened in a tabbed interface)
   • 2011, Botond Kopacz, “1.4 Biztonsági funkciók”, in Internet Explorer 9 a zsebben‎^[8]:

     De mi a helyzet abban az esetben, ha egyszerre több megnyitott lappal dolgozunk, és az egyik lap lefagy?

     But what if we are working with several pages open at once, and one of them crashes?

8. (geometry) face (any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron)

   Synonym: (a less technical term in this sense) oldal

   • 1983, Euclid, “Tizenkettedik könyv”, in Gyula Mayer, transl., Elemek‎^[9]:

     Vegyünk egy hasábot, melynek alapja az ABC háromszög s szemközti lapja DEF.

     Consider a prism whose base is triangle ABC, and the opposite face is DEF.

9. (in the possessive) top (the flat, horizontal surface of a table or desk)

   Synonym: asztallap

   • 1915, Kurt Matull, chapter XV, in A ​przemysli repülő‎^[10]:

     Leült az íróasztala elé, keresztbe tette lábait és idegesen dobolt az asztal lapján.

     He sat down before his desk, crossed his legs and started nervously tapping on the desktop.

10. (in the possessive) flat (flat side of something, as opposed to the edge)
    • 2013, “Csábító fogások vasban gazdag májjal”, in Heves Megyei Hírlap‎^[11], volume 24, number 45:

      A fokhagymát megtisztítjuk, és a kés lapjával szétnyomjuk.

      Peel the garlic, and crush it with the flat of the knife.

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	lap	lapok
accusative	lapot	lapokat
dative	lapnak	lapoknak
instrumental	lappal	lapokkal
causal-final	lapért	lapokért
translative	lappá	lapokká
terminative	lapig	lapokig
essive-formal	lapként	lapokként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	lapban	lapokban
superessive	lapon	lapokon
adessive	lapnál	lapoknál
illative	lapba	lapokba
sublative	lapra	lapokra
allative	laphoz	lapokhoz
elative	lapból	lapokból
delative	lapról	lapokról
ablative	laptól	lapoktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	lapé	lapoké
non-attributive possessive - plural	lapéi	lapokéi

Possessive forms of lap
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	lapom	lapjaim
2nd person sing.	lapod	lapjaid
3rd person sing.	lapja	lapjai
1st person plural	lapunk	lapjaink
2nd person plural	lapotok	lapjaitok
3rd person plural	lapjuk	lapjaik

Derived terms

References

Further reading

• lap in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Indonesian lap definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈlap̚]
• Hyphenation: lap

Etymology 1

From Dutch lap, from Middle Dutch lap, lappe, from Old Dutch lap, from Proto-Germanic *lappa-, *lappô (“rag, cloth”), of uncertain origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely”).

Noun

lap (plural lap-lap, first-person possessive lapku, second-person possessive lapmu, third-person possessive lapnya)

1. a rag, a piece of cloth.

Etymology 2

From English lap, from Middle English lappen (“to fold, wrap”) from earlier wlappen (“to fold, wrap”), from Old English *wlappan, *wlæppan, *wlappian (“to wrap”), from Proto-Germanic *wlapp-, *wrapp- (“to wrap, fold, roll up, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend, turn”).

Noun

lap (plural lap-lap, first-person possessive lapku, second-person possessive lapmu, third-person possessive lapnya)

1. lap:
   1. one circuit around a race track, or

      Synonym: putaran

   2. one traversal down and then back the length of a pool

Further reading

• “lap” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Mòcheno lap definition

Etymology

From Middle High German loup, from Old High German loup, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”). Cognate with German Laub, English leaf.

Noun

lap n

1. leaf

References

• “lap” in Cimbrian, Ladin, Mòcheno: Getting to know 3 peoples. 2015. Servizio minoranze linguistiche locali della Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trento, Italy.

Phalura lap definition

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lap/

Adverb

lap (Perso-Arabic spelling لپ)

1. quickly
2. soon

Alternative forms

• lab

References

• Liljegren, Henrik; Haider, Naseem (2011) Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)‎^[12], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, →ISBN

Scots lap definition

Verb

lap

1. simple past tense of leap

Alternative forms

• leapit

Tok Pisin lap definition

Etymology

From English laugh.

Noun

lap

1. laughter

Verb

lap

1. to laugh