Meanings
- not comparableOn a lap.
Despite their name, laptops seem to rarely be used lapwise.
3 more examples
The man rushed through it just in time to leave beside the road a volcanic eruption that to have been the recipient of which, lapwise, would have made the trip memorable indeed.
1986, Peter De Vries, Peckham's Marbles, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 91Thank goodness the cat took about half the coffee—which she certainly deserved. Things could have been a lot worse for me had she not been situated exactly where she was, lapwise, and anyway her hair grew back rather quickly.
1991, Robert Hitt Neill, Don't Fish Under the Dingleberry Tree (And Other Philosophies of Life), Leland, M.S.: Mississippi River Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 201Reading postures varied. Some attendees sat cross-legged with a book resting lapwise. Others were curled up on a sofa.
2023 December 19, Molly Young, “My Evening at Reading Rhythms, a Party for Bookish Introverts”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Dec 2023
Origin
Cite this entry
lapwise. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lapwise
“lapwise.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lapwise. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lapwise,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lapwise.
Source: lapwise on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.