chap

Etymology 1

Clipping of chapman (“dealer, customer”) in 16th-century English.

noun

1. (dated outside UK and Australia) A man, a fellow.
   Who’s that chap over there?
   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. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   ‘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.’ 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess
2. (UK, dialectal) A customer, a buyer.
   If you have Blacks of any kind, brought in of late; Mantoes--Velvet Scarfs--Petticoats--Let it be what it will--I am your Chap--for all my Ladies are very fond of Mourning. 1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera, Act 3
3. (Southern US) A child.

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

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.
   Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, / Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain. 1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem
   whose fair face neither the summer's blaze can scorch nor winter's blast chap. 1591, John Lyly, Endymion
3. (Scotland, Northern England) To strike, knock.
   And then it seems that through the open door there came the chapping of a clock. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
   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, published 2009, page 35

noun

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.
3. (Scotland) A blow; a rap.

Etymology 3

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

noun

1. (archaic, often in the plural) The jaw.
   His chaps were all besmear'd with crimson blood. a. 1667, Abraham Cowley, The Song
2. One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.

Etymology 4

Shortening

noun

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