Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A brief sleep, often during the day.
- v. To sleep for a brief period, often during the day; doze.
- v. To be unaware of imminent danger or trouble; be off guard: The civil unrest caught the police napping.
- n. A soft or fuzzy surface on fabric or leather.
- v. To form or raise a soft or fuzzy surface on (fabric or leather).
- v. To pour or put a sauce or gravy over (a cooked dish): "a stuffed veal chop napped with an elegant Port sauce” ( Jay Jacobs).
- n. A card game that resembles whist.
- n. The highest bid in this game, announcing the intention to win five tricks, the maximum number in a hand. Also called napoleon.
- n. See napoleon.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To have a short sleep; be drowsy.
- To detect in the very act: hence the phrase in the quotation.
- n. A short sleep.
- n. The woolly or villous substance on the surface of cloth, felt, or other fabric. It is of many varieties, as the uniform short pile of velvet, the knotted pile of frieze and other heavy water proof cloths, etc. Compare
pile . - n. Some covering resembling the nap of cloth.
- n. A felted cloth used in polishing glass, marble, etc.
- n. plural The loops of the warp in uncut velvet, which, when cut, form tho pile.
- n. Dress; form; presentation.
- To raise or put a nap on.
- n. A beaker.
- n. A knob; a protuberance; the top of a hill.
- To seize; grasp.
- To strike.
- To cheat.
- n. An abbreviated form of napoleon, 2.
Wiktionary
- n. A soft or fuzzy surface on fabric or leather.
- v. to form or raise a soft or fuzzy surface on (fabric or leather)
- n. UK A type of bet in British horse racing, based on the experts' best tips
- n. uncountable, games A card game in which players take tricks; properly Napoleon
- v. obsolete to grab; to nab
- v. cooking To cover (something) with a sauce (usually in passive)
- n. A short period of sleep, especially one during the day
- v. to have a nap; to sleep for a short period of time, especially during the day
- v. to be off one's guard
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To have a short sleep; to be drowsy; to doze.
- v. To be in a careless, secure state; to be unprepared.
- n. A short sleep; a doze; a siesta.
- n. Woolly or villous surface of felt, cloth, plants, etc.; an external covering of down, of short fine hairs or fibers forming part of the substance of anything, and lying smoothly in one direction; the pile.
- n. The loops which are cut to make the pile, in velvet.
- v. To raise, or put, a nap on.
- n. Same as napoleon, 1, below.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the yarn (as in a rug or velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave
- n. a card game similar to whist; usually played for stakes
- v. take a siesta
- n. a period of time spent sleeping
- n. a soft or fuzzy surface texture
- n. sleeping for a short period of time (usually not in bed)
Etymologies
- From Middle English nappen, from Old English hnappian ("to doze, slumber, sleep"), from Proto-Germanic *hnappōnan (“to nap”). Cognate with Old High German hnaffezan, hnaffezzan (> Middle High German nafzen ("to slumber") > German dialectal napfezen, nafzen ("to nod, slumber, nap")). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from nappen, to doze, from Old English hnappian.Alteration (perhaps influenced by obsolete French nape, tablecloth) of Middle English noppe, from Middle Dutch.French napper, from nappe, cover; see nappe.Short for napoleon. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Ah, rereading your reply from yesterday, I can assure you that what you call a nap is the beginning state of rest.”
Hawaii Adventure Day 6: the Kapoho Tide Pools, underwater views
“I picture you and I having our 5 min nap after dinner.”
“The chemical responsible for the post-gluttinous nap is called tryptophan, and it is why Uncle Bernie no longer has a moustache.”
“Power-napping, catching 15 minutes of forty winks during lunch break, does have definite benefits, and indeed napping salons have started popping up recently, although I do suspect that due to the short night-time sleep hours the Japanese power-nap is more of a necessity than a lifestyle choice.”
“I should go upstairs and get the next book now, but the urge to nap is rising.”
“The best time for a nap is between 1 and 3 p.m., when the body most craves a period of sleep.”
The Huffington Post: Tony Schwartz: Why Companies Should Insist That Employees Take Naps
“The ideal length for a workplace nap is 30 minutes or less, which assures that you won't fall into the deeper stages of sleep, and awake with that loopy feeling scientists call "sleep inertia.”
The Huffington Post: Tony Schwartz: Why Companies Should Insist That Employees Take Naps
“Not just that getting enough overnight makes you fresher and sharper all round, but a 15 min nap when your mind is getting fuzzy saves a sluggish afternoon.”
The (Nearly) Ultimate Resource: 176 Tips for Writers | Write to Done
“After all, the only way we can really get a good in-flight nap is by uncinching our leather corset top and kicking off our dominatrix heels.”
ICYMI: Slut Gets Kicked Off Airline, Flashes Underwear on Today Show | Best Week Ever
“But the kids just left, and I had to wake up at like 5 AM after staying up until 2 AM, so a disco nap is definitely in order.”
Dru Blood - I believe in the inherent goodness of all beings: Disco Nap
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nap’.
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EN - 3-letter words of the pattern CVC
With the exception of abbreviations and mosaic words all types of words (proper names, past tense of verbs, etc.) are allowed.
for, was, not, his, but, has, had, can, her, him, new, now and 339 more...
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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emordnilap
reviled, loot, no, ta, rat, part, pit, stop, spat, ten, mad, mart and 108 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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The Gentle Life
Words relating to quiet, inactivity, peace.
desuetude, languor, halcyon, placidness, quiescent, elysian, relaxation, meditation, lassitude, hiatus, respite, pacific and 16 more...
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I am : tired
Tired and sleepy words!
tired, weary, sleepy, exhausted, soporific, droopy, snooze, nap, dead-beat, shuteye, rinsed, groggy and 9 more...
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Buttery
Words that make me feel cozy
Noodle, Nugget, Butter, Soft, Snug, Feather, Socks, Knit, Mug, Curl, Billow, Lounge and 315 more...
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Autantonyms
Words with mutually exclusive double meanings. Also, here are some:
QUASI-AUTANTONYMS: slow up/slow down; bar/debar; bone/debone; burn up/burn down; fat chance/slim chance; fill in/fil...clip, cleave, sanction, handicap, fast, jibe, secrete, aloha, bimonthly, bolt, cheerio, commencement and 139 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 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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born2badored's Words
livid, fnordy, grok, bloopy, bokonon, disinformation, psychometrics, trip hop, acid jazz, bauble, dynamic, constant and 91 more...
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Bedaphors
So
very
sleepyhypnagogic, chronotherapy, clinomania, condorm, librocubicularist, matutolypea, soporific, supine, decubitus, pandiculation, oscitancy, slugabed and 169 more...
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A spoonful of sugar
Words I should learn/I want to learn/I just learned, with a quotation to help the medicine go down.
approbation, assuage, chicanery, abscond, effrontery, enervation, equivocate, ennui, aftertaste, filibuster, perfunctory, abide and 391 more...
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DYSLEXIC'S DREAD
Words That Make Sense in Reverse Too! Bad news for a dyslexic, 'cause s/he's got no clue if s/he read the word correctly or not, as opposed to a palindrome (i.e., no mistake possible, cf. "Dyslexic...
tool, lever, nap, pool, leer, leek, desserts, strop, doom, ukiah, yaws, ward and 213 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nap.

Prolagus My mother buried three husbands - and two of them were only napping.
Rita Rudner Mar 14, 2008
oroboros Pan in reverse. Nov 3, 2007
oroboros Contronymic in the sense: stand up (e.g., nap of a rug) vs. lay down. Jan 27, 2007