Library / English Dictionary

CHAP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: chapped    , chapping   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(usually in the plural) leather leggings without a seat; joined by a belt; often have flared outer flaps; worn over trousers by cowboys to protect their legs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("chap" is a kind of...):

leg covering; legging; leging (a garment covering the leg (usually extending from the knee to the ankle))

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A crack in a lip caused usually by cold

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("chap" is a kind of...):

cleft; crack; crevice; fissure; scissure (a long narrow opening)

Derivation:

chap (crack due to dehydration)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A boy or man

Example:

he's a good bloke

Synonyms:

blighter; bloke; chap; cuss; fella; feller; fellow; gent; lad

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("chap" is a kind of...):

male; male person (a person who belongs to the sex that cannot have babies)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chap"):

dog (informal term for a man)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A long narrow depression in a surface

Synonyms:

chap; crack; cranny; crevice; fissure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("chap" is a kind of...):

depression; impression; imprint (a concavity in a surface produced by pressing)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Crack due to dehydration

Example:

My lips chap in this dry weather

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "chap" is one way to...):

crack (break partially but keep its integrity)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

chap (a crack in a lip caused usually by cold)

Credits

 Context examples: 

You wouldn't have me let that fine fellow work himself to death just for want of a little help, when he is worth a dozen of us lazy chaps, would you?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A moisturizing skincare formulation used for various skin conditions including dry skin conditions associated with eczema, psoriasis, chapped or chafed skin.

(Eucerin, NCI Thesaurus)

The poor girl was almost distracted: that quarter of the palace was all in an uproar; the servants ran for ladders; the monkey was seen by hundreds in the court, sitting upon the ridge of a building, holding me like a baby in one of his forepaws, and feeding me with the other, by cramming into my mouth some victuals he had squeezed out of the bag on one side of his chaps, and patting me when I would not eat; whereat many of the rabble below could not forbear laughing; neither do I think they justly ought to be blamed, for, without question, the sight was ridiculous enough to every body but myself.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“All of a sudden, one evening—as it might be tonight—comes little Em'ly from her work, and him with her! There ain't so much in that, you'll say. No, because he takes care on her, like a brother, arter dark, and indeed afore dark, and at all times. But this tarpaulin chap, he takes hold of her hand, and he cries out to me, joyful, “Look here! This is to be my little wife!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

What gets me, Henry, is what a chap like this, that's a lord or something in his own country, and that's never had to bother about grub nor blankets; why he comes a-buttin' round the Godforsaken ends of the earth—that's what I can't exactly see.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

"And so you're the chap," Messner said in marvelling accents. "Well, well. You see, I really am glad to meet you. I have been—er—curious to know what Theresa found in you—where, I may say, the attraction lay. Well, well."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I could see the head-lines in the papers; the fellows at the University Club and the Bibelot shaking their heads and saying, “Poor chap!”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

"Yes, that's the chap," he stammered, his cheeks hot again.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I tried here and tried there, but there were lots of other chaps on the same lay as myself, and it was a perfect frost for a long time.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Plucky little chaps they are, and hardly gave a squeak.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)