lap

  1. Noun.  The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.
  2. Noun.  An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth.
  3. Noun.  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.
  4. Noun.  The upper legs of a seated person.
  5. Noun.  (italbrac, archaic (17th century)) , (euphemistic) The female pudenda.
  6. Noun.  (construction) component that overlaps or covers any portion of the same or adjacent component.
  7. Verb.  (transitive) to fold, wrap.
  8. Verb.  (transitive) to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up.
  9. Verb.  (transitive) to envelop, enfold.
  10. Verb.  (intransitive) to wind around.
  11. Verb.  (transitive) To place or lay (something) so as to overlap another.
  12. Verb.  (transitive) To polish, e.g., a surface, until smooth.
  13. Verb.  (intransitive) To lie partly on or over something; to overlap.
  14. Verb.  (transitive) To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more lap than them.
  15. Noun.  the act or process of lapping.
  16. Noun.  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.
  17. Noun.  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).
  18. Noun.  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.
  19. Noun.  (sports) One circuit around a race track, or one traversal down and then back the length of a pool; as, to run twenty laps; to win by three laps, to swim two laps.
  20. Noun.  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.
  21. Noun.  A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
  22. Noun.  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.
  23. Verb.  (transitive) To slurp up a liquid (like water) as a dog.
  24. Verb.  (intransitive, of water) To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.