lap

Etymology 1

From Middle English lappe, from Old English læppa (“skirt or flap of a garment”), from Proto-Germanic *lappô (“cloth; rag”), of uncertain origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely”). Cognate with Dutch lap (“cloth; rag”), German Lappen (“cloth; lobe; flap”), Icelandic leppur (“rag; patch”).

noun

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.
3. The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered.
4. (figurative) A place of rearing and fostering.
5. The upper legs of a seated person.
   The boy was sitting on his mother's lap.
6. (archaic, euphemistic) The female pudenda.
7. (engineering) A component that overlaps or covers any portion of itself or of an adjacent component.

verb

1. (transitive) To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.
2. (transitive) To rest or recline in a lap, or as in a lap.
   to lap his head on lady's breast a. 1839, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Gog

Etymology 2

From Middle English lappen (“to fold, wrap”) from earlier wlappen (“to fold, wrap”), from Old English *wlappan, *wlæppan, *wlappian (“to wrap”), from Proto-Germanic *wlapp-, *wrapp- (“to wrap, fold, roll up, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend, turn”). Cognate with Middle Dutch lappen (“to wrap up, embrace”), dialectal Danish vravle (“to wind”), Old Italian goluppare (“to wrap, fold up”) (from Germanic). Doublet of 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.

verb

1. (transitive) To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.
   to lap a piece of cloth
2. (transitive) to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up
   to lap a bandage around a finger
3. (transitive) to envelop, enfold
   lapped in luxury
4. (intransitive) to wind around
5. (transitive) To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.
   One laps roof tiles so that water can run off.
6. (transitive) To polish (a surface, especially metal or gemstone) with very fine abrasive to achieve smoothness and small dimensional changes.
   Coordinate term: grind
7. (intransitive) To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.
   The cloth laps back.
   The boats lap; the edges lap.
8. (transitive, sports, motor racing) To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.
9. To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc.

noun

1. The act or process of lapping.
2. That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another.
   the lap of a board
3. The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping.
   The second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.
4. 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).
5. (sports) One circuit around a race track.
   to run twenty laps
   to drive the fastest lap in qualifying
   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. May 13, 2012, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport
6. (swimming) The traversal of one length of the pool, or (less commonly) one length and back again.
   to swim two laps
7. 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.
8. A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
9. 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.

Etymology 3

From Middle English lappen, from Old English lapian, from Proto-Germanic *lapōną, *lapjaną (“to lick; lap”), from imitative Proto-Indo-European *leh₂b- (“to lap, lick”); akin to Old High German laffen (“to lick”), Old Norse lepja, Danish labe, Old Saxon lepil, German Löffel (“spoon”). Cognate with Latin lambere (“lick”). French lamper is a loanword from German. Compare Danish leffe, dialect German läffeln.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.
   Don’t lap your soup like that, you look like a dog.
   The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily […] as they run along the shore.
2. (intransitive, of water) To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.

noun

1. The taking of liquid into the mouth with the tongue.
   With each lap of its tongue a cat gathers up milk and throws it well back into the gateway of its throat […] 1955, Ann Haven Morgan, Kinships of Animals and Man: A Textbook of Animal Biology, page 176
2. (obsolete, slang, uncountable) Liquor; alcoholic drink.

Etymology 4

noun

1. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparoscopy.
2. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparotomy.

adj

1. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparoscopic.