chap

See also: CHAP and cha̍p

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʃæp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æp

Etymology 1

Shortened from chapman (“dealer, customer”) in 16th century English.

Noun

chap (plural chaps)

1. (dated outside Britain and Australia) A man, a fellow.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:man

   • 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?

2. (Britain, dialectal) A customer, a buyer.
   • (Can we date this quote by Steele and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)

     If you want to sell, here is your chap.

3. (Southern US) A child.

Derived terms

• chapess
• chappie
• chappo

Descendants

• Pennsylvania German: Tschaepp (“guy”)

Translations

man or fellow

• Bulgarian: чове́к (bg) m (čovék), момче́ (bg) n (momčé)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 家伙 (zh) (jiāhuo), 小子 (zh) (xiǎozi)

• Finnish: kaveri (fi); kundi (fi) (dialectal)
• French: bougre (fr) m, mec (fr) m, quidam (fr) m
• German: Kerl (de) m, Typ (de) m
• Ido: kerlo (io)
• Italian: tipo (it), tizio (it)

• Japanese: やつ (ja) (yatsu), 奴 (ja) (やつ, yatsu)
• Maori: autaia, tāhae, tāhake, korokē
• Norman: gas m
• Occitan: amic (oc) m
• Portuguese: camarada (pt) m or f
• Russian: мужи́к (ru) m (mužík), па́рень (ru) m (párenʹ), ма́лый (ru) m (mályj) (colloquial), чува́к (ru) m (čuvák) (slang), кент (ru) m (kent) (slang)
• Spanish: tipo (es) m

dialectal: customer, buyer

• Finnish: kundi (fi)

colloquial: child

• Finnish: kersa (fi)

Etymology 2

From Middle English chappen (“to split open, burst, chap”), of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English choppen (“to chop”), Dutch kappen (“to cut, chop, hack”). Perhaps related to chip.

Verb

chap (third-person singular simple present chaps, present participle chapping, simple past and past participle chapped)

1. (intransitive) Of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
2. (transitive) To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.
   • (Can we date this quote by Blackmore and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)

     Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, / Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain.

   • (Can we date this quote by Lyly and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)

     Nor winter's blast chap her fair face.

3. (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 […]

Derived terms

• chapped
• chapstick

Translations

of skin: to split or flake

• Asturian: ariar
• Bulgarian: напуквам се (napukvam se), нацепвам се (nacepvam se)
• Finnish: ahavoitua (fi); halkeilla (fi)
• Hungarian: kicserepesedik

• Ido: ekzemeskar (io)
• Maori: titupu
• Portuguese: rachar (pt)
• Russian: тре́скаться (ru) n (tréskatʹsja)

of skin: to cause to split or flake

• Finnish: ahavoida (fi)

• French: crevasser (fr)

Noun

chap (plural chaps)

1. A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
2. (obsolete) A division; a breach, as in a party.
   • (Can we date this quote by T. Fuller and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)

     Many clefts and chaps in our council board.

3. (Scotland) A blow; a rap.

Derived terms

• chappy

Etymology 3

From Northern English chafts (“jaws”). Compare also Middle English cheppe (“one side of the jaw, chap”).

Noun

chap (plural chaps)

1. (archaic, often in the plural) The jaw.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest

     This wide-chapp'd rascal—would thou might'st lie drowning / The washing of ten tides!

   • (Can we date this quote by Cowley and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)

     His chaps were all besmeared with crimson blood.

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii]:

     He unseamed him from the nave to the chaps.

2. One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.

Related terms

• chop

Translations

the jaw

• Bulgarian: челюст m (čeljust)
• Finnish: leuka (fi)
• Russian: че́люсть (ru) f (čéljustʹ)

• Swedish: käft (sv) c

Etymology 4

Shortening

Noun

chap (plural chaps)

1. (Internet slang) Clipping of chapter (“division of a text”).

See also

• chaps

Anagrams

• CHPA, PHAC, Pach

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

chap m (plural chappen, diminutive chappie n)

1. Alternative spelling of sjap.

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xap/

Verb

chap

1. second-person singular imperative of chapać

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Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʃap/

Etymology

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”)).

Verb

chap

1. To knock or strike.