Definition of "lap"

lap¹

/læp/

noun
plural laps
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. (figuratively) A place of rearing and fostering.
5. The upper legs of a seated person.
6. (archaic, euphemistic) The female pudenda.
7. (engineering) A component that overlaps or covers any portion of itself or of an adjacent component.
verb
third-person singular simple present laps, present participle lapping, simple past and past participle lapped
1. (transitive) To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.
  Quotations
  Her garment spreads, and laps him in the fold.
  1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […]
2. (transitive) To rest or recline in someone's lap, or as in a lap.
  Quotations
  to lap his head on lady's breast
  a. 1839, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Gog

lap²

/læp/

verb
third-person singular simple present laps, present participle lapping, simple past and past participle lapped or (archaic) lapt
1. (transitive) To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.
2. (transitive) to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up
  Quotations
  About the paper […] I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk.
  1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […]
3. (transitive) to envelop, enfold
4. (intransitive) to wind around
5. (transitive) To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.
6. (transitive) To polish (a surface, especially metal or gemstone) with very fine abrasive to achieve smoothness and small dimensional changes.
7. (intransitive) To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.
  Quotations
  The upper wings are opacous […] ; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a fly.
  1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musæum Regalis Societatis. Or A Catalogue & Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and Preserved at Gresham Colledge. […], London: […] W. Rawlins, for the author
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
plural laps
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.
3. The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping.
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  2012 May 13, 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.
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.

lap³

/læp/

verb
third-person singular simple present laps, present participle lapping, simple past and past participle lapped or (archaic) lapt
1. (transitive, intransitive) To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.
  Quotations
  They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
  The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily […] as they run along the shore.
  1644, Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises
2. (intransitive, of water) To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.
  Quotations
  I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag.
  1870, Alfred Tennyson, “The Passing of Arthur”, in The Holy Grail and Other Poems, London: Strahan and Co., […], page 144
noun
countable and uncountable, plural laps
1. The taking of liquid into the mouth with the tongue.
  Quotations
  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.

lap⁴

/læp/

noun
plural laps
1. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparoscopy.
2. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparotomy.
adjective
not comparable
1. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of laparoscopic.

Definition of "lap"

lap1

noun

verb

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lap2

verb

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lap3

verb

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lap4

noun

adjective

lap¹

lap²

lap³

lap⁴