knap

• IPA^(key): /næp/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æp
• Homophone: nap

From Middle English knappen (verb) and knappe (“strike”) (noun), an onomatopoeia.

knap (third-person singular simple present knaps, present participle knapping, simple past and past participle knapped)

1. (transitive) To shape a brittle material having conchoidal fracture, usually a mineral (flint, obsidian, chert etc.), by breaking away flakes, often forming a sharp edge or point.
2. (transitive) To rap or strike sharply.
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     Knap the tongs together […] about a handful from the bottom.

   • 1820, The Edinburgh Monthly Magazine, volume 8, no.43, page 81, October 1820.

     Some entered the ring in very bad condition, and immediately got a-piping, like hot mutton pies - fell on their own blows, and knapped it every round, till they shewed the white feather and bolted.

   • 1977, Marilynne K. Roach, Encounters with the Invisible World, →ISBN, page 10:

     "That will be sixpence," he said without looking up. She knapped her lips together and turned on her heel without another word.

3. (obsolete, UK, dialect) To bite; to bite off; to break short.
   • 1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC:
     Psalms xlvi. 9

     He breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder.

   • 1821, John Clare, The Village Minstrel:

     "Horses..turn'd to knap each other at their ease."

4. To make a sound of snapping.
   • 1676, Richard Wiseman, Severall Chirurgicall Treatises, London: […] E. Flesher and J. Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin] Took, […], →OCLC:

     Press back the head of the Femur into its Acetabulum , and it will knap in

(to shape a brittle material) In modern usage knap is restricted to the specific technique of percussion flaking whereby flakes are removed across an entire face or facet leaving a conchoidal fracture. It is distinguished from the more general verb chip and is different from "carve" (removing only part of a face), and "cleave" (breaking along a natural plane). The term is used in archaeology for the production of flaked stone tools and in gunsmithing for the production of gunflints. Knap is rarely used in stonemasonry except to denote fine chipping done with smaller hammers but without the chisel.

• (break flakes from brittle material): chip

• knapper
• knappable

• knapsack

knap (plural knaps)

1. A sharp blow or slap.
   • 2012, Andrew Ashenden, Basics of Stage Combat: Unarmed, →ISBN:

     It tells the audience the punch was thrown, they hear a knap, and the victim is 'injured'.

• conchoidal
• flake
• hinge
• pressure flaking

From Middle English knappe (“knob”), from Old English cnæp, akin to cnotta (“knot”).

knap (plural knaps) (chiefly dialect)

1. A protuberance; a swelling; a knob.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Building”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground

2. The crest of a hill
3. A small hill
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:

     the highest part and knap of the same Iland

knap (third-person singular simple present knaps, present participle knapping, simple past and past participle knapped)

1. Alternative form of nap (“to nab or grab”)

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

“knap”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Probably from Middle Low German knap, otherwise related to it. Further cognate with German knapp, Swedish knapp, Dutch knap.

• IPA^(key): /knap/, [kʰnɑb̥]
• Rhymes: -ap

knap

1. scant, scarce
2. brief, concise

knap

1. hardly, scarcely
2. just under
3. barely

From Old Norse knappr, from Proto-Germanic *knappô.

knap c (singular definite knappen, plural indefinite knapper)

1. button (in clothes etc.)
2. button (in machines)

• IPA^(key): /knɑp/

• Audio

  (file)

Ca. 1500. A word originally found only in Dutch and Low German; compare Middle Low German knap, whence German knapp, Danish knap, Swedish knapp, all “scarce, scant”, also “tight-fitting, small” (of clothes). From the last, Dutch derived “attractive, pretty”, which was then further generalised; cf. semantically German schmücken (“to embellish", originally "to fit tightly”).

Further origin unknown. Perhaps comparable to Ancient Greek κνάπτω (knáptō, “to card wool”), κνέφαλλον (knéphallon, “flock, wool”), in the sense of "tight-fitting, shapely."[1][2]

knap (comparative knapper, superlative knapst)

1. attractive, handsome, pretty

   Synonym: aantrekkelijk

2. impressive, decent, rather good or big

   Synonym: netjes

   Oh, dat is best knap.

   Oh, that's pretty impressive.

3. smart, intelligent, gifted, clever

   Synonyms: begaafd, slim

4. (archaic) lissom, agile, brisk, fresh
5. (archaic) tight-fitting, shapely
6. (archaic) tight (of a budget), scarce

• knappe kop
• knapperd

• → Caribbean Javanese: knap

knap

1. quite, rather, pretty (reinforces what follows)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

knap

1. inflection of knappen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Borrowed from German knapp.

• IPA^(key): /ˈknap/
• Syllabification: knap

knap (not comparable)

1. (dated) narrowly, just, barely, merely

   Synonyms: ledwie, ledwò

• Jan Trepczyk (1994) Słownik polsko-kaszubski (in Kashubian), volumes 1–2
• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011) “lewdie”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi‎
• “knap”, in Internetowi Słowôrz Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka [Internet Dictionary of the Kashubian Language], Fundacja Kaszuby, 2022

From Old English cnæp.

knap

1. Alternative form of knappe (“knob”)

Possibly onomatopoeic.

knap

1. Alternative form of knappe (“strike”)

From German knapp.

knap (Cyrillic spelling кнап)

1. (colloquial) tight

knap (Cyrillic spelling кнап)

1. (colloquial) tightly, barely

• jedva, tijesno

knap c

1. (nautical) cleat

• knap in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• knap in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• knap in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• pank