chap

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

chap, v. t. [See Chop to cut.].

•  To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.  [1913 Webster]

  "Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign,
  Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain."  [1913 Webster]

  "Nor winter's blast chap her fair face."  [1913 Webster]
•  To strike; to beat.  [1913 Webster]

chap, v. i. 

•  To crack or open in slits; as, the earth chaps; the hands chap.  [1913 Webster]
•  To strike; to knock; to rap.  [1913 Webster]

chap, n. [From Chap, v. t. & i.].

•  A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.  [1913 Webster]
•  A division; a breach, as in a party.  [1913 Webster]

  "Many clefts and chaps in our council board."  [1913 Webster]
•  A blow; a rap.  [1913 Webster]

chap, n. [OE. chaft; of Scand. origin; cf. Icel kjaptr jaw, Sw. Käft, D. kiæft; akin to G. kiefer, and E. jowl. Cf. Chops.].

•  One of the jaws or the fleshy covering of a jaw; -- commonly in the plural, and used of animals, and colloquially of human beings.  [1913 Webster]

  "His chaps were all besmeared with crimson blood."  [1913 Webster]

  "He unseamed him [Macdonald] from the nave to the chaps."  [1913 Webster]
•  One of the jaws or cheeks of a vise, etc.  [1913 Webster]

chap, n. [Perh. abbreviated fr. chapman, but used in a more general sense; or cf. Dan. kiæft jaw, person, E. chap jaw.].

•  A buyer; a chapman.  [1913 Webster]

  "If you want to sell, here is your chap."  [1913 Webster]
•  A man or boy; a youth; a fellow.  [1913 Webster]

chap, v. i. [See Cheapen.].

 To bargain; to buy.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

chap, v. & n.
--v. (chapped, chapping)
1 intr. (esp. of the skin; also of dry ground etc.) crack in fissures, esp. because of exposure and dryness.
2 tr. (of the wind, cold, etc.) cause to chap.
--n. (usu. in pl.)
1 a crack in the skin.
2 an open seam.

chap, n. colloq. a man; a boy; a fellow.

chap, n. the lower jaw or half of the cheek, esp. of a pig as food.

Idiom

chap-fallen dispirited, dejected (with the lower jaw hanging).

Etymology

16th c.: var. of CHOP(2), of unkn. orig.

THESAURUS

chap

Adamite, abysm, abyss, arroyo, bastard, being, bird, bloke, body, box canyon, boy, bozo, breach, break, buck, buddy, bugger, canyon, cat, cavity, character, chasm, check, chimney, chink, cleft, cleuch, clough, col, coulee, couloir, cove, crack, cranny, creature, crevasse, crevice, customer, cut, cwm, defile, dell, dike, ditch, donga, draw, duck, earthling, excavation, fault, feller, fellow, fissure, flaw, flume, fracture, furrow, gap, gape, gash, gazebo, gee, geezer, gent, gentleman, gorge, groove, groundling, gulch, gulf, gully, guy, hand, he, head, hole, homo, human, human being, incision, individual, jasper, joint, joker, kloof, lad, leak, life, living soul, man, moat, mortal, nose, notch, nullah, old boy, one, opening, party, pass, passage, person, personage, personality, ravine, rent, rift, rime, rupture, scissure, seam, single, slit, slot, somebody, someone, soul, split, stud, tellurian, terran, trench, valley, void, wadi, worldling

ROGET THESAURUS

chap

Interval

N interval, interspace, separation, break, gap, opening, hole, chasm, hiatus, caesura, interruption, interregnum, interstice, lacuna, cleft, mesh, crevice, chink, rime, creek, cranny, crack, chap, slit, fissure, scissure, rift, flaw, breach, rent, gash, cut, leak, dike, ha-ha, gorge, defile, ravine, canon, crevasse, abyss, abysm, gulf, inlet, frith, strait, gully, pass, furrow, abra, barranca, barranco, clove, gulch, notch, yawning gulf, hiatus maxime, hiatus valde deflendus, parenthesis, void, incompleteness, period, interim (time), with an interval, far between, breachy, rimose, rimulose, at intervals, longo intervallo.

Man

N man, male, he, him, manhood, gentleman, sir, master, sahib, yeoman, wight, swain, fellow, blade, beau, elf, chap, gaffer, good man, husband, Mr, mister, boy, cock, drake, gander, dog, boar, stag, hart, buck, horse, entire horse, stallion, gibcat, tomcat, he goat, Billy goat, ram, tup, bull, bullock, capon, ox, gelding, steer, stot, androgen, homosexual, gay, queen, male, he-, masculine, manly, virile, unwomanly, unfeminine, Pron, he, him, his, hominem pagina nostra sapit, homo homini aut deus aut lupus, homo vitae commodatus non donatus est.