Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To make secure by lashing.
  • transitive verb To take up the slack of; tighten.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To strike; smite.
  • Nautical, to secure by many turns of a lashing.
  • To fly into a passion.
  • noun A violent fit of rage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb (Naut.) To draw together; to bind with a view to secure and strengthen, as a vessel by passing cables around it; to tighten; as a tackle by drawing the lines together.
  • transitive verb To brace by drawing together, as the cords of a drum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb nautical To draw together tightly.
  • noun informal frappuccino

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb take up the slack of
  • verb make secure by lashing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English frapen, to strike, from Old French fraper; see frappé.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Shortening.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "...he reflected that if she could not be provided with new knees in the course of a thorough refit he might eventually have to frap her whole carcass, winding cable round and round until it looked like an enormous chrysalis."

    —Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 234

    February 14, 2008

  • I spent many happy hours frapping as a boy.

    February 22, 2008

  • Did you frap carcasses?

    February 22, 2008

  • Carcasses, cars, asses: you name it, I frapped it.

    February 22, 2008

  • But did you frap gammon?

    Dude. That's frapped.

    February 22, 2008

  • We were always frapping gammon, my pals and I. "Do you fancy a game of frapgammon?" we would ask each other, when the tedium of our drab nonage grew unbearable.

    Do you play frapgammon, cb?

    February 22, 2008

  • How about frapminton? Did you play frapminton? It's a frappin' good game.

    February 22, 2008

  • My favorite things to frap are bowsprits and jibbooms. But frapgammon was always a favorite. A greasy favorite, but still.

    Moo.

    February 22, 2008

  • At length, John, the tall Frenchman, the head of the starboard watch (and a better sailor never stepped upon a deck), sprang aloft, and, by the help of his long arms and legs, succeeded, after a hard struggle,-- the sail blowing over the yard-arm to leeward, and the skysail adrift directly over his head,-- in smothering it and frapping it with long pieces of sinnet.

    - Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 25

    September 9, 2008

  • See also frapping.

    October 13, 2008