lap up

present singular third person laps up · participle present lapping up · participle past lapped up · past lapped up

1. transitiveTo consume by lapping; to drink (something) quickly.

   The cat's lapping up the milk in its bowl

2. figurativelytransitiveTo revel in, to overtly enjoy.

   You could see she was pleased, she was lapping up the applause.

   3 more examples

   All this skirt, lappin' up the sun, lap me up

   1977, “Peaches”, performed by the Stranglers

   City have lapped up the plaudits this season for a series of handsome wins but manager Roberto Mancini has demanded that his side also learn to grind out results when they do not play well. He now has an example to point to.

   2011 November 5, Phil Dawkes, “QPR 2 - 3 Man City”, in BBC Sport

   Merkel, whose autobiography is out this autumn, has declined to comment publicly on the series. But fellow Germans have lapped it up, with the first series gathering 3mn viewers.

   2024 July 13, Guy Chazan, “Ex-chancellor’s imagined career as a sleuth hits Italian TV”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2