Definition of "rap"

The teacher sat at one end of the bench, with a meek little fellow by his side. When the others were disorderly, this young martyr received a rap; intended, probably, as a sample of what the rest might expect, if they didn't amend.

1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […]

He walked softly up the sanded path, tiptoed up the steps and across the piazza, and rapped at the front door, not too loudly, lest this too might attract the attention of the man across the street. There was no response to his rap. He put his ear to the door and heard voices within, and the muffled sound of footsteps. After a moment he rapped again, a little louder than before.

1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter II, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […]

The author (obviously a naturalist of no mean order) received an official rap over the knuckles for trespassing, and for encouraging others to do so. Evidently the instigator of this reprimand had not visited the railway in blackberry time!

1950 March, Eric S. Tonks, “The Whitacre—Hampton-in-Arden Line, L.M.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 187

Clearspace is holding a bisexuality rap at the center, 485 Mass Ave. 7:30pm. Topic of discussion will be femininity and masculinity.

1979 April 14, “Calendar”, in Gay Community News, page 16

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review‎, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, […]

He walked softly up the sanded path, tiptoed up the steps and across the piazza, and rapped at the front door, not too loudly, lest this too might attract the attention of the man across the street. There was no response to his rap. He put his ear to the door and heard voices within, and the muffled sound of footsteps. After a moment he rapped again, a little louder than before.

1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter II, in The House Behind the Cedars

With one great peal they rap the door.

1717, Matthew Prior, The Dove

But the purported rise in violent videos online has led some MPs to campaign for courts to have more power to remove or block material on YouTube. The Labour MP Heidi Alexander said she was appalled after a constituent was robbed at knifepoint, and the attackers could be found brandishing weapons and rapping about gang violence online.

2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian‎

Three languages rapped, fumbled or rumblingly oozed all the while.

1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 129

Louie said, "I dig this Theo. I'm gonna learn Swahili and rap with him."

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, page 432

Got your address from NGTF, I could dig some mail and friends. I'll be released in July of '80, am 24, and like chess, body building, people and of course letters. Nice rapping to you.

1980 April 12, Mike Sassin, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 19

[…] and that every hank or skein that shall be used as a binder to tie up or bind together any pound or parcel of yarn shall contain the same number of threads in a rap or lea, and the same number of raps or leas as the other hanks or skeins in the said pound or parcel.

1762, The Statutes at Large (Great Britain), page 386

At each rap the reel was moved slightly to one side, so that the next rap was wound separately, and so on until seven raps had been made, then the seven raps were made up into one hank, […]

1881, Alfred Spitzli, A Manual for Managers, Designers, Weavers, and All Others, page 22

Thus, a rap may be reeled (of cotton or silk 120 yards, of worsted 80 yards), then as one rap is equal to one-seventh of a hank, 1000 grains will be equal to the one-seventh of a pound, so that whatever part of 1000 grains one rap weighs, or whatever number of raps are required to weigh1000 grains, that number of hanks will weigh one pound.

1885, Thomas Rotherforth Ashenhurst, A practical treatise on weaving and designing of textile fabrics

The yarn rap reel is 1½ yard in circumference; 80 rounds or 120 yards make one rap; 7 raps or 840 yards one bank. In 1 lb. of cotton yarn there are 7,000 grains. When one rap weighs 1,000 grains, or seven raps 7,000 grains, the yarn is one hank to the pound, and when ten raps weigh 350 grains it is 28.57 hanks to the pound.

1888, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Manchester Meeting, 1887 on the Regulation of Wages by Means of Lists in the Cotton Industry., page 19

Rule to find constant for beams: Multiply the number of yards in one rap by the number of ends in the beam, and by the number of raps on the beam and divide by 840.

1913, How to Build, Equip and Operate a Cotton Mill in the United States, page 408

Many counterfeits passed about under the name of raps.

1724, Jonathan Swift, “Drapier's Letters”, in 1

Tie it [her money] up so tight that you can't touch a rap, save with her consent.

1886, Mrs. Alexander, Beaton's Bargain

We got one maybe ID, but when we checked, we found out the suspect's been in Rikers for a year on a drug rap.

2014, James Neal Harvey, Mental Case