chap
Contents
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
Shortened from chapman (“dealer, customer”) in 16th century English.
NounEdit
chap (plural chaps)
- (dated outside Britain and Australia) A man, a fellow.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess[1]:
- ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’
- Who’s that chap over there?
- (Britain, dialectal) A customer, a buyer.
- Steele
- If you want to sell, here is your chap.
- Steele
- (Southern US) A child.
SynonymsEdit
- See also Thesaurus:man
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- Pennsylvania German: Tschaepp (“guy”)
TranslationsEdit
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Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English chappen, from Old English *ċeappian, from Proto-Germanic *kapp- (“to strike, cut”). Cognate with Dutch kappen (“to cut, chop, hack”). Related to chip.
VerbEdit
chap (third-person singular simple present chaps, present participle chapping, simple past and past participle chapped)
- (intransitive) Of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
- (transitive) To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.
- Blackmore
- Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, / Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain.
- Lyly
- Nor winter's blast chap her fair face.
- Blackmore
- (Scotland, Northern England) To strike, knock.
- 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 35:
- The door was shut into my class. I had to chap it and then Miss Rankine came and opened it and gived me an angry look […]
- 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 35:
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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NounEdit
chap (plural chaps)
- A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
- (obsolete) A division; a breach, as in a party.
- T. Fuller
- Many clefts and chaps in our council board.
- T. Fuller
- (Scotland) A blow; a rap.
Derived termsEdit
Etymology 3Edit
From Northern English chafts (“jaws”). Compare also Middle English cheppe (“one side of the jaw, chap”).
NounEdit
chap (plural chaps)
- (archaic, often in the plural) The jaw.
- 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare
- This wide-chapp'd rascal—would thou might'st lie drowning / The washing of ten tides!
- Cowley
- His chaps were all besmeared with crimson blood.
- Shakespeare
- He unseamed him from the nave to the chaps.
- 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare
- One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
Etymology 4Edit
Shortening
NounEdit
chap (plural chaps)
See alsoEdit
AnagramsEdit
DutchEdit
PronunciationEdit
Audio (file)
NounEdit
chap m (plural chappen, diminutive chappie n)
- Alternative spelling of sjap.
ScotsEdit
PronunciationEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old English *ċeappian, *ċieppan, from Proto-Germanic *kapp-, *kap- (“to chop; cut; split”), like also English chop. Akin to Saterland Frisian kappe, kapje (“to hack; chop; lop off”), Dutch kappen (“to chop, cut, hew”), Middle Low German koppen (“to cut off, lop, poll”), German Low German kappen (“to cut off; clip”), German kappen (“to cut; clip”), German dialectal chapfen (“to chop into small pieces”), Danish kappe (“to cut, lop off, poll”), Swedish kapa (“to cut”), Albanian copë (“piece, chunk”), Old English *ċippian (attested in forċippian (“to cut off”)).
VerbEdit
chap
- To knock or strike.