chap

plural chaps

1. dated outside UK and AustraliaA man, a fellow.

   Who’s that chap over there?

   3 more examples

   “Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps.”

   1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194

   A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Synonyms: bloke, boy, bro, broski, bruh, cat, chappy, chield

2. UKdialectalA customer, a buyer.

   If you have Blacks of any kind, brought in of late; Mantoes--Velvet Scarfs--Petticoats--Let it be what it will--I am your Chap--for all my Ladies are very fond of Mourning.

   1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera, Act 3

3. Southern USA child.

present singular third person chaps · participle present chapping · participle past chapped · past chapped

1. intransitiveOf the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
2. transitiveTo cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.

   whose fair face neither the summer's blaze can scorch nor winter's blast chap.

   1591, John Lyly, Endymion

   1 more example

   Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, / Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain.

   1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem

3. Northern EnglandScotlandTo strike, knock.

   And then it seems that through the open door there came the chapping of a clock.

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

   1 more example

   The door was shut into my class. I had to chap it and then Miss Rankine came and opened it and gived me an angry look […]

   2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 35

plural chaps

1. A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
2. obsoleteA division; a breach, as in a party.

   Many clefts and chaps in our council board.

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

3. ScotlandA blow; a rap.

plural chaps

1. archaicin pluraloftenThe jaw.

   He unseamed him from the nave to the chaps.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   2 more examples

   This wide-chapp'd rascal—would thou might'st lie drowning / The washing of ten tides!

   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, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   His chaps were all besmear'd with crimson blood.

   a. 1667, Abraham Cowley, The Song

2. One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.

plural chaps

1. obsoleteObsolete form of chop (“Asian seal used on documents”).

plural chaps

1. InternetabbreviationclippingClipping of chapter (“division of a text”).

1. abbreviationinitialismcomputingInitialism of Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol.

plural Chaps

1. A surname from Khmer.