chap1 (chap)

[ There were many clefts and chaps in our counsel. Fuller . What chaps are made in it [the earth) are filled up again. T. Burnet , Theory of the Earth. 2. A stroke of any kind; a blow; a knock; especially, a tap or rap, as on a door, to draw attention. Also cha up . [Scotch.] chap2, chop3 (chop), n. [Always written chop in the third sense given below; usually, in lit. sense, in the pl., chaps, chops; a Southern E. corruption (appar. in simulation of chap1, chop1 ) of Northern E. chafts, the jaws: see chaft.] 1. The upper or lower part of the mouth; the jaw: commonly in the plural. He, mistaking the weapon, lays me over the chaps with his club-fist. Beau , and Fl . , Thierry and Theodoret, iii. 2. His chaps were all besmeared with crimson blood. Cowley, Pyramus and This be. The Crocodiles the countrey people do often take in pitfals, and grappling their chaps together with an iron, bring them alive unto Cairo. Sandys , Travailes, p. 79. 2. A jaw of a vise or clamp.-3. pl . The mouth or entrance of a channel: as, the chops of the English channel. Sometimes applied to the capes at the mouth of a bay or harbor: as, the East Chop and West Chop of Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard. chap3 (chap), n . [An abbrev. of chapman , q. v. For the second sense, cf. the similar use of customer , and formerly of merchant ; cf. also G. IMG:content-0148.jpg:[blocks in formation] 2. A fellow; a man or a boy: used familiarly, like fellow, and usually with a qualifying adjective, old, young, little, poor, etc., and loosely, much as the word fellow is. Poor old chap ,... poor old Joey, he was a first-rater. G. A. Sala , The late Mr. D. chap (chap), v . t . and i.; pret. and pp. chapped , ppr. chapping . [ ME.chappen , chapien , var. of chepen, chepien , E. cheap : see chop2 and cheap , v ., and cf. chap - book , chapman , chapfare , etc.] To buy or sell; trade: a variant of chop2 and cheap (which see). chaps (chap), v. t.; pret. and pp. chapped, ppr. chapping. [Sc., also chaupen, appar. a particular use of chap4 = chop2, bargain, or of chap1, strike (a bargain).] 1. To choose; choose definitely; select and claim: as, I chap this.-2. To fix definitely; accept and agree to as binding; hold to (a proposal, or the terms of a bargain): as, I chaps that; I chap (or chaps ) you. [Scotch in both senses, and in common use among children during play.] chap. An abbreviation of chapter. chapapote (Sp. pron. chä-pä-po'tā), n. [Cuban Sp., Bitumen is likewise found in Cuba, and is brought into commerce under the name of chapapote , or Mexican asphalt. Pop . Sci . Mo. , XXII. 189.