Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To break or chip (stone) with sharp blows, as in shaping flint or obsidian into tools.
- v. Chiefly British To strike sharply; rap.
- v. Chiefly British To snap at or bite.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To strike with a sharp noise.
- To snap; crack; break in pieces with blows: as, to knap stones.
- To bite; bite off; nibble.
- To make a short sharp sound.
- To talk short.
- n. A short sharp noise; a snap.
- n. A stroke; blow.
- n. A clapper.
- n. A protuberance; a swelling; a knob or button.
- n. A rising ground; a knoll; a hillock; a summit.
- n. The bud of a flower.
- n. The flower of the common clover, Trifolium pratense.
Wiktionary
- n. The crest of a hill
- n. A small hill
- v. transitive To shape a vitreous mineral (flint, obsidian, chert etc.) by breaking away flakes, often forming a sharp edge or point.
- v. transitive To rap or strike sharply.
- n. A sharp blow or slap.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A protuberance; a swelling; a knob; a button; hence, rising ground; a summit. See knob, and knop.
- v. Obs. or Prov. Eng. To bite; to bite off; to break short.
- v. Chiefly Brit. To strike smartly; to rap; to snap.
- v. To make a sound of snapping.
- n. A sharp blow or slap.
WordNet 3.0
- v. break a small piece off from
- v. strike sharply
Etymologies
- From Middle English knappen, an onomatopeia (Wiktionary)
- Middle English knappen, probably of imitative origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A Knapper may have lived on a "knap," or may have been one of the Suffolk flint-knappers, who still prepare gun-flints for weapons to be retailed to the heathen.”
“And, yes, the documentary, narrated by Linda Hunt and consisting of some remarkable photographs and early wax recordings, did say that Ishi taught his new hosts how to "knap" brittle rocks into arrowheads and spear points.”
“Where I hunt there are briars galore and I need a material that has a low knap so it doesn't snag.”
“So glad that one of Gerard Butlers movies was on the list. kate knap, on December 31st, 2009 at 8: 31 pm Said:”
“The lead salesman, a greasy joker named Chick, would have Benny wear a long-sleeved carpet coat—low knap for summer, shag for winter—and then use a device on him that was supposed to simulate the full-strength bite of an adult male zom.”
“One of the moves that we learned was called “the knap”.”
“Halp Halp-tuk a lil knap an waked up to annorified kittehs!”
Why are you hollering? - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“I'm sure they are, I secretly packed them all 5 pounds of meat in their knap-sack.”
“June 27, 2008 at 12:54 pm adn wii dint haf caturdai & sumdai 2 wrest evear nao ima teakinna knap…”
uphill BOFE wayz? - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“She pummeled their worn and tattered clothes on a volcanic rock in the lake until they were sheer, with no knap.”
Three señoras named Lola - an excerpt from the book Agave Marias
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘knap’.
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Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
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Archaeology
Words for shovelbums!
trowel, mattock, chopper, n-transform, c-transform, taphonomy, processual, post-processual, microarchaeology, site, horizon, battleship curve and 33 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Allographic Homophones
Words that can be pronounced identically but are spelled differently. I've started with unusual or extensive sets. In some of these sets, no one speaker would pronounce them all the same. I've trie...
air, are, ayr, ayre, e'er, ere, err, eyre, heir, apatite, appetite, picnic and 226 more...
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My Modern Job in the Past
Words I come across at work.
Now stripped of most military terms, which have found a new home on the list Historical Military Terms of Interest. See also (and add to!) hilarious misspe...chaise-marine, delft, delftware, quince, tympan, cresset, navvy, venn diagram, poop deck, apothecary, heliotrope, millinery and 294 more...
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slo: nižje pogovorno v SSKJ
Words listed as "low colloquial" in Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika (Dictionary of Standard Slovene).
afna, afnati se, arcnija, bolovati, briht, britof, cagati, cagav, cagavec, cajg, cenkati se, �?orav and 338 more...
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Words encountered on freerice.com
The perfect site for any true wordie who wants to help in small ways.
amaurosis, telluric, scandent, paludal, tomalley, mithridate, adit, futhark, premorse, chigoe, chinch, ennead and 24 more...
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kn- words
knapsack, knickknack, knock, kneel, knight, knap, knish, knell, knell, knoll, knife, know and 9 more...
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rduke's Words
misguggle, ken, sere, etiolated, gelid, digladiate, popinjay, bathykolpian, conglaciation, hyperborean, callipygian, vagile and 1253 more...
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The Hills Are Alive
Hill words. Also see over hill.
hill, hillock, tor, golgotha, butte, morro, brae, formicary, drumlin, sowback, barrow, foothill and 41 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for knap.
seanahan You have a strange job. Oct 29, 2007
chained_bear I remember this delightful word from stage combat training. It's the sound of being "struck," usually made by the victim rather than the aggressor (with notable exceptions), to complete the illusion of there being actual contact.
Nowadays I hear guys at work using the word to describe chipping a flint into the proper shape/size for use in a musket. Oct 29, 2007