Pronunciations (3)
-
/læp/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- Canada
- Received-Pronunciation
- US
-
/lap/
Pronunciation notes
- British
- Northern-England
- Scotland
- Southern
- Standard
- Wales
-
/lɛp/
Pronunciation notes
- New-Zealand
Noun
The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.
An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth.
The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered.
A place of rearing and fostering.
Usage- Figurative
The upper legs of a seated person.
- Examples
-
The boy was sitting on his mother's lap.
The female pudenda.
Usage- Archaic
- euphemistic
A component that overlaps or covers any portion of itself or of an adjacent component.
Verb
To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
-
Her garment spreads, and laps him in the fold.
To rest or recline in someone's lap, or as in a lap.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
-
to lap his head on lady's breast
Verb
To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
-
to lap a piece of cloth
to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
-
to lap a bandage around a finger
About the paper […] I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk.
to envelop, enfold
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
-
lapped in luxury
to wind around
Usage- Intransitive
To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
-
One laps roof tiles so that water can run off.
To polish (a surface, especially metal or gemstone) with very fine abrasive to achieve smoothness and small dimensional changes.
Usage- Transitive
- Broader terms
To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
-
The cloth laps back.
The boats lap; the edges lap.
More examples (1)
The upper wings are opacous[…]; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a fly.
To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.
Usage- Transitive
- Antonyms
To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc.
Noun
The act or process of lapping.
That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another.
- Examples
-
the lap of a board
The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping.
- Examples
-
The second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.
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).
One circuit around a race track.
- Examples
-
to run twenty laps
to drive the fastest lap in qualifying
More examples (2)
to win by three laps
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.
The traversal of one length of the pool, or (less commonly) one length and back again.
- Examples
-
to swim two laps
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.
A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
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.
Verb
To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.
Usage- Transitive or intransitive
- Examples
-
Don’t lap your soup like that! You look like a dog.
They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.
More examples (1)
The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily […]as they run along the shore.
To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.
Usage- Intransitive
- of water
- Examples
-
I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag.
Noun
The taking of liquid into the mouth with the tongue.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
-
With each lap of its tongue a cat gathers up milk and throws it well back into the gateway of its throat […]
Liquor; alcoholic drink.
Usage- Obsolete
- Slang
- Uncountable
Noun
the upper side of the thighs of a seated person
- Broader terms
- Examples
-
he picked up the little girl and plopped her down in his lap
an area of control or responsibility
- Examples
-
the job fell right in my lap
the part of a piece of clothing that covers the thighs
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
-
his lap was covered with food stains
a flap that lies over another part
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
-
the lap of the shingles should be at least ten inches
movement once around a course
- Broader terms
- Examples
-
he drove an extra lap just for insurance
touching with the tongue
- Synonyms
- Examples
-
the dog's laps were warm and wet
Verb
lie partly over or alongside of something or of one another
- Broader terms
pass the tongue over
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
-
the dog licked her hand
move with or cause to move with a whistling or hissing sound
- Examples
-
The bubbles swoshed around in the glass
The curtain swooshed open
take up with the tongue
- Examples
-
The cat lapped up the milk
the cub licked the milk from its mother's breast
wash or flow against
- Broader terms
- Examples
-
the waves laved the shore