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