chap Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a boy or man
    fella; cuss; blighter; lad; gent; fellow; bloke; feller.
    • that chap is your host
    • there's a fellow at the door
    • he's a likable cuss
    • he's a good bloke
  2. noun a long narrow depression in a surface
    crevice; cranny; fissure; crack.
  3. noun a crack in a lip caused usually by cold
  4. noun (usually in the plural) leather leggings without a seat; joined by a belt; often have flared outer flaps; worn over trousers by cowboys to protect their legs
  5. verb crack due to dehydration
    • My lips chap in this dry weather

WordNet

Chap transitive verb
Etymology
See Chop to cut.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Chapped ; present participle & verbal noun Chapping
Definitions
  1. To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.
    Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain. Blackmore.
    Nor winter's blast chap her fair face. Lyly.
  2. To strike; to beat. Scot.
Chap intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To crack or open in slits; as, the earth chaps; the hands chap.
  2. To strike; to knock; to rap. Scot.
Chap noun
Etymology
From Chap, v. t. & i.
Definitions
  1. A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
  2. A division; a breach, as in a party. Obs.
    Many clefts and chaps in our council board. T. Fuller.
  3. A blow; a rap. Scot.
Chap noun
Etymology
OE. chaft; of Scand. origin; cf. Icel kjaptr jaw, Sw. Käft, D. kiæft; akin to G. kiefer, and E. jowl. Cf. Chops.
Definitions
  1. One of the jaws or the fleshy covering of a jaw; -- commonly in the plural, and used of animals, and colloquially of human beings.
    His chaps were all besmeared with crimson blood. Cowley.
    He unseamed him [Macdonald] from the nave to the chaps. Shak.
  2. One of the jaws or cheeks of a vise, etc.
Chap noun
Etymology
Perh. abbreviated fr. chapman, but used in a more general sense; or cf. Dan. kiæft jaw, person, E. chap jaw.
Definitions
  1. A buyer; a chapman. Obs.
    If you want to sell, here is your chap. Steele.
  2. A man or boy; a youth; a fellow. Colloq.
Chap intransitive verb
Etymology
See Cheapen.
Definitions
  1. To bargain; to buy. Obs.

Webster 1913