lap

Meanings

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
• The upper legs of a seated person.
• The female pudenda.
• A component that overlaps or covers any portion of itself or of an adjacent component.
• 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.
• The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping.
• 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, or one traversal down and then back the length of a pool
• 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, etc. It is usually in the form of a wheel or disk that revolves on a vertical axis.
• The taking of liquid into the mouth with the tongue.
• Liquor; alcoholic drink.
• Short form of laparoscopy

Verb

• To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.
• To rest or recline in a lap, or as in a lap.
• To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.
• to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up
• to envelop, enfold
• to wind around
• To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.
• To polish, e.g., a surface, until smooth.
• To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.
• To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.
• To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc.
• To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.
• To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.

Adjective

• Short form of laparoscopic

Origin

• From Middle English lappe, from Old English læppa, from Proto-Germanic *lappô, of uncertain origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European *leb- ("to hang loosely"). Cognate with Dutch lap, German Lappen, Icelandic leppur.
• From Middle English lappen from earlier wlappen, from Old English *wlappan, *wlæppan, *wlappian, from Proto-Germanic *wlapp-, *wrapp-, from Proto-Indo-European *werb-. Cognate with Middle Dutch lappen, dialectal Danish vravle, Old Italian goluppare (from Germanic). 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.
• From Middle English lappen, from Old English lapian, from Proto-Germanic *lapōną, *lapjaną, from imitative Proto-Indo-European *leh₂b- ("to lap, lick"); akin to Old High German laffen, Old Norse lepja, Danish labe, Old Saxon lepil, German Löffel. Cognate with Latin lambo. French lamper is a loanword from German. Compare Danish leffe, dialect German läffeln.