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Lap   /læp/   Listen
noun
Lap  n.  
1.
The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.
2.
An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth. "If he cuts off but a lap of truth's garment, his heart smites him."
3.
The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered; figuratively, a place of rearing and fostering; as, to be reared in the lap of luxury. "Men expect that happiness should drop into their laps."
4.
That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another; as, the lap of a board; also, the measure of such extension over or upon another thing. Note: The lap of shingles or slates in roofing is the distance one course extends over the second course below, the distance over the course immediately below being called the cover.
5.
(Steam Engine) 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 Outside lap (below).
6.
The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping; as, the second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.
7.
One circuit around a race track, esp. when the distance is a small fraction of a mile; as, to run twenty laps; to win by three laps. See Lap, to fold, 2.
8.
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.
9.
(Cotton Manuf.) A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
10.
(Mach.) A piece of brass, lead, or other soft metal, used to hold a cutting or polishing powder in cutting glass, gems, and the like, or in polishing cutlery, etc. It is usually in the form of wheel or disk, which revolves on a vertical axis.
Lap joint, a joint made by one layer, part, or piece, overlapping another, as in the scarfing of timbers.
Lap weld, a lap joint made by welding together overlapping edges or ends.
Inside lap (Steam Engine), lap of the valve with respect to the exhaust port.
Outside lap, lap with respect to the admission, or steam, port.



Lap  n.  
1.
The act of lapping with, or as with, the tongue; as, to take anything into the mouth with a lap.
2.
The sound of lapping.



verb
Lap  v. t.  (past & past part. lapped; pres. part. lapping)  
1.
To rest or recline in a lap, or as in a lap. "To lap his head on lady's breast."
2.
To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc. See 1st Lap, 10.



Lap  v. t.  
1.
To fold; to bend and lay over or on something; as, to lap a piece of cloth.
2.
To wrap or wind around something. "About the paper... I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk."
3.
To infold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish. "Her garment spreads, and laps him in the folds."
4.
To lay or place over anything so as to partly or wholly cover it; as, to lap one shingle over another; to lay together one partly over another; as, to lap weather-boards; also, to be partly over, or by the side of (something); as, the hinder boat lapped the foremost one.
5.
(Carding & Spinning) To lay together one over another, as fleeces or slivers for further working.
To lap boards, To lap shingles, etc., to lay one partly over another.
To lap timbers, to unite them in such a way as to preserve the same breadth and depth throughout, as by scarfing.



Lap  v. t.  To take into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue. "They 'II take suggestion as a cat laps milk."



Lap  v. i.  To be turned or folded; to lie partly upon or by the side of something, or of one another; as, the cloth laps back; the boats lap; the edges lap. "The upper wings are opacous; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a flay."



Lap  v. i.  
1.
To take up drink or food with the tongue; to drink or feed by licking up something. "The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily as they run along the shore."
2.
To make a sound like that produced by taking up drink with the tongue. "I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, And the wild water lapping on the crag."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Lap" Quotes from Famous Books



... that," said he, and therewith caught them both up, and laid the little one in her mother's lap, and set both of them thus on his left arm, but had his right free; and so he took the ford withal, nor durst they cry out, so afeard ...
— The Story of Grettir The Strong • Translated by Eirikr Magnusson and William Morris

... Mr. Boult. Certainly not that." She looked down at the black-gloved hands which lay in her lap. They trembled; to keep them steady she caught them one in the other. "I have been talking it over with my children, and we have decided, if you approve, to take a good-sized house by the sea, where we could all live together, and take in lodgers. That would be a way of ...
— Mrs. Day's Daughters • Mary E. Mann

... moans and rakes Upon the strings of this Aeolian lute, Which better far were mute. For lo! the New-moon winter-bright! And overspread with phantom light, 10 (With swimming phantom light o'erspread But rimmed and circled by a silver thread) I see the old Moon in her lap, foretelling The coming-on of rain and squally blast. And oh! that even now the gust were swelling, 15 And the slant night-shower driving loud and fast! Those sounds which oft have raised me, whilst they awed, And sent my soul abroad, Might now perhaps their wonted ...
— Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... the Vetala is about a king's three sensitive wives: As one of the queens was playfully pulling the hair of the king, a blue lotus leaped from her ear and fell on her lap; immediately a would was produced on the front of her thigh by the blow, and the delicate princess exclaimed, "Oh! oh!" and fainted. At night, the second retired with the king to an apartment on the roof of the palace exposed to the rays of the moon, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... stretched out lovingly to clasp her neck. She bent down and kissed the air, and listened again to those blessed sounds which swelled her heart with rapture, and brought tears of joy to her eyes. Alas! she but grasped at empty air, and nothing was real but the tears that fell into her lap. ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag


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