nap
/næp/ verb, noun
Forms naps napping napped knap
- verb To have a nap; to sleep for a short period of time, especially during the day.
- verb (figuratively) To be off one's guard. “The regulators were caught napping by the financial collapse.”
- noun A short period of sleep, especially one during the day.
- noun A soft or fuzzy surface, generally on fabric or leather.
- noun The common direction, on some kinds of fabric, of the hairs making up the pile. “If the fabric has a nap, make sure all pieces are cut with the nap going the same direction.”
- verb To form or raise a soft or fuzzy surface on (fabric or leather).
- noun (UK) A type of bet in British horse racing, based on the experts' best tips.
- noun (uncountable, card games) A card game in which players take tricks; properly Napoleon.
- noun A bid to take five tricks in the card game Napoleon.
- verb (obsolete) To grab; to nab.
- verb (cooking) To cover (something) with a sauce. (usually in the passive)
- noun (Northern England, Scotland) A cup, bowl.
Synonyms
snooze doze kip cark doss rest sleep shut-eye bed booger(s) crusty eye booger(s) eye bogie(s) eye crust eye goop eye gunk eye sand eye snot gound sleeper sleepies pile catnap cat sleep forty winks short sleep Napoleon catch a wink
Etymology
From Middle English nappen, from Old English hnappian (“to doze, slumber, sleep”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnappōn (“to nap”). Cognate with Old High German hnaffezan, hnaffezzan (whence Middle High German nafzen (“to slumber”) whence German dialectal napfezen, nafzen (“to nod, slumber, nap”)).
From Middle English nap, from the verb nappen.
From late Middle English noppe, nappe, from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German noppe, noppen (“to trim the nap”), ultimately from knappen (“to eat, crack”), of imitative origin. Related to the first element of knapsack.
From the name of the French emperor Napoleon I of France.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To have a short sleep; to be drowsy; to doze. Chaucer.
- verb To be in a careless, secure state. Wyclif.
- noun A short sleep; a doze; a siesta. Cowper.
- noun Woolly or villous surface of felt, cloth, plants, etc.; an external covering of down, of short fine hairs or fibers forming part of the substance of anything, and lying smoothly in one direction; the pile; --as, the nap of cotton flannel or of broadcloth.
Etymology [OE. nappen, AS. hn&ppian to take a nap, to slumber; cf. AS. hnipian to bend one's self, Icel. hnipna, hnipa, to droop.]
Etymology [OE. noppe, AS. hnoppa; akin to D. nop, Dan. noppe, LG. nobbe.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “nap”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details