lapping

Variant of lap

noun

  1. Now Rare the loose lower part of a garment, which may be doubled or folded over; skirt of a coat or gown
  2. the front part of the skirt when it is held up to form a hollow place in which things can be carried
    1. the front part from the waist to the knees of a person in a sitting position
    2. the part of the clothing covering this
  3. anything hollow like a lap, as a valley
  4. that in which a person or thing rests or is cared for, sheltered, or coddled
  5. a part extending over another part; overlapping part
    1. such extension; overlapping
    2. amount or place of this
  6. a turn or loop, as of a rope around a post
  7. a rotating disk for cutting and polishing glass, gems, etc.
    1. one complete circuit around a racetrack, in a race consisting of more than one
    2. one part or stage of an extended project
  8. the act or condition of lapping

Origin: ME lappe < OE læppa, fold or hanging part of a garment, skin; akin to Ger lappen < IE base *leb-, lāb-, to hang down > L labare, to totter, labi, to fall, sink, lapsus, a fall

transitive verb lapped, lapping

  1. to fold (over or on)
  2. to wrap; enfold
  3. to hold in or as in the lap; envelop: lapped in luxury
  4. to place partly upon something else: to lap one board over another
  5. to lie partly upon; overlap: one board laps the other
  6. to cut or polish (glass, gems, etc.) with a lap
  7. to get a lap ahead of (an opponent) in a race

Origin: ME lappen < the n.

intransitive verb

  1. to be folded: rough edges must lap under
  2. to lie partly upon something or upon one another; overlap
  3. to project beyond something in space, or extend beyond something in time: with over
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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