Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The back of the neck.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The back upper part of the neck, technically called nucha: generally in the phrase nape of the neck.
- n. The thin part of a fish's belly next to the head. A beheaded fish, split along the belly, shows a pair of napes.
- To cut through the nape of the neck.
- n. A table-cloth.
Wiktionary
- n. The back part of the neck.
- n. obsolete A tablecloth.
- v. To bombard with napalm.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The back part of the neck.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the back side of the neck
Etymologies
- Short for napalm. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The creature's pudgy hands rested on the sleek arch of his belly; his nape was a roll of sooty fat that seemed to thrust his bullet head forward.”
The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian
“And she gradually noticed how the fine hairs on his nape were the color of Spanish gold; how his hands were large enough to hold her together.”
“The creature's pudgy hands rested on the sleek arch of his belly; his nape was a roll of sooty fat that seemed to thrust his bullet-head forward.”
The Conan Chronicles
“And the thumbs that pressed her nape were the same.”
Beloved
“The creature's pudgy hands rested on the sleek arch of his belly; his nape was a roll of fat that seemed to thrust his bullet-head forward; his eyes, gleaming coals in a dead black stump.”
Conan of Cimmeria
“The nape is the back of the birds neck and the mantle is the "cloak" or feathers on the back of the bird.”
“The program is called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (or NAEP, pronounced "nape"), and it issues reports on reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, civics, and geography.”
“Like, see, when I pull your hair like this I gently grab her hair at the nape of the neck and pull it feels good huh?”
“From the darkness of sleep my nape detected a full moist kiss; but perhaps it was a dream.”
“She smiled into the metal as I pulled at her hair, fangs buried in the nape of her neck.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nape’.
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words about piercings
needles, metal, piercing, tongue, surface, nape, ears, mouth, industrial, nose, tragus, webbing and 11 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 491 more...
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andrew.simone's Words
elan, prestidigitation, flummoxed, autochthonous, missive, hoi polloi, schadenfreude, frou-frou, oolong, burleseque, ontic, etymology and 165 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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parody's Words
defenestrate, behemoth, floss, macchiato, glom, emu, alpaca, crocheted, ampersand, charade, conflate, salacious and 193 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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List of words to expand my vocabulary
does what it says on the tin, and is severely needed.
indolent, insolent, idly, divulge, tattle, benign, roguish, daintily, idle, dowdy, sordid, wanton and 242 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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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 557 more...
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norrell's Words
hush, dove, euphoria, nebulae, bryn mawr, darling, phoenix, nape, cream, butterscotch, cosmos, frost and 190 more...
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wordsmithing part deux
because wordsmith is not a verb.
enmity, incarnate, chignon, nape, solitude, nocturne, decorum, warren, svelte, interstice, serene, charlotte and 488 more...
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random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nape.

yarb Short for napery presumably. Jan 19, 2011
ruzuzu And "To bombard with napalm" is just awful. Jan 19, 2011
Prolagus And by the way, definition #3 under "noun" is the definition of a verb. Jan 19, 2011
ruzuzu That's better than the one about the thin part of a fish's belly. Jan 19, 2011
Prolagus "A table-cloth"?! Jan 19, 2011