rap

See also: Rap, RAP, ráp, rấp, rắp, rập, rạp, and гар

Languages (23)

Acehnese • Basque • Catalan • Cebuano • Danish • Dutch • Finnish • French • Hungarian • Kashubian • Middle English • Norwegian Bokmål • Old English • Old French • Old Frisian • Polish • Portuguese • Romanian • Spanish • Swahili • Swedish

Page categories

Translingual

Symbol

rap

(international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Rapa Nui.

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Rap (disambiguation)

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɹæp/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Rhymes: -æp
Homophone: wrap

Etymology 1

From Middle English rap, rappe, of North Germanic origin, related to Norwegian rapp (“a blow, strike, lash”), Swedish rapp (“a blow, lash, crack”), Danish rap (“a tap, smart, blow”). Compare Old English hreppan (“to touch, treat”). More at rape.

Noun

rap (countable and uncountable, plural raps)

English Wikipedia has an article on:

rap

Wikipedia

(countable) A sharp blow with something hard.
- 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
  The teacher sat at one end of the bench, with a meek little fellow by his side. When the others were disorderly, this young martyr received a rap; intended, probably, as a sample of what the rest might expect, if they didn't amend.
- 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter II, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
  He walked softly up the sanded path, tiptoed up the steps and across the piazza, and rapped at the front door, not too loudly, lest this too might attract the attention of the man across the street. There was no response to his rap. He put his ear to the door and heard voices within, and the muffled sound of footsteps. After a moment he rapped again, a little louder than before.
- 1950 March, Eric S. Tonks, “The Whitacre—Hampton-in-Arden Line, L.M.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 187:
  The author (obviously a naturalist of no mean order) received an official rap over the knuckles for trespassing, and for encouraging others to do so. Evidently the instigator of this reprimand had not visited the railway in blackberry time!
(slang, with definite article) The blame for something.
Synonyms: blame, fall

You can't act irresponsibly and then expect me to take the rap.
(informal) A casual talk.
- 1979 April 14, “Calendar”, in Gay Community News, page 16:
  Clearspace is holding a bisexuality rap at the center, 485 Mass Ave. 7:30pm. Topic of discussion will be femininity and masculinity.
(music, uncountable) Rap music.
They like listening to rap.
A song, verse, or instance of singing in the style of rap music.
(Australia, informal) An appraisal.
a good/great/bad rap
(Australia, informal) A positive appraisal; a recommendation.
He gave the novel quite a rap.

Derived terms

Terms derived from the noun "rap"

Descendants

→ Dutch: raps
- ⇒ Dutch: rapsen
→ Finnish: rap
→ German: Rap
→ Macedonian: рап (rap)

Translations

a sharp blow with something hard

Bulgarian: почукване n (počukvane), рязък удар m (rjazǎk udar)
Dutch: klap (nl) m
Finnish: kopaus, näpäys
Ottoman Turkish: دستك (destek)
Russian: уда́р (ru) m (udár)
Scottish Gaelic: bualadh m

blame

Finnish: syy (fi)
Portuguese: culpa (pt) f

rap music — see rap music

Etymology 2

From Middle English rappen, of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish rappa (“to strike, beat, rap”), German rappeln (“to rattle”).

Verb

rap (third-person singular simple present raps, present participle rapping, simple past and past participle rapped)

(intransitive) To strike something sharply with one's knuckles; knock.
- 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review‎^[1], volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC:
  While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
- 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter II, in The House Behind the Cedars:
  He walked softly up the sanded path, tiptoed up the steps and across the piazza, and rapped at the front door, not too loudly, lest this too might attract the attention of the man across the street. There was no response to his rap. He put his ear to the door and heard voices within, and the muffled sound of footsteps. After a moment he rapped again, a little louder than before.
(transitive, dated) To strike with a quick blow; to knock on.
- 1717, Matthew Prior, The Dove:
  With one great peal they rap the door.
(metalworking) To free (a pattern) in a mould by light blows on the pattern, so as to facilitate its removal.
To utter quickly and sharply.
The sergeant rapped out a word of command to the troops.
(transitive, intransitive) To speak (lyrics) in the style of rap music.
He started to rap after listening to Tupac.

He rapped a song to his girlfriend.
- 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian‎^[2]:
  But the purported rise in violent videos online has led some MPs to campaign for courts to have more power to remove or block material on YouTube. The Labour MP Heidi Alexander said she was appalled after a constituent was robbed at knifepoint, and the attackers could be found brandishing weapons and rapping about gang violence online.
(informal, intransitive) To talk casually; to engage in conversation.
- 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 129:
  Three languages rapped, fumbled or rumblingly oozed all the while.
- 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 432:
  Louie said, "I dig this Theo. I'm gonna learn Swahili and rap with him."
- 1980 April 12, Mike Sassin, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 19:
  Got your address from NGTF, I could dig some mail and friends. I'll be released in July of '80, am 24, and like chess, body building, people and of course letters. Nice rapping to you.

Synonyms

(strike something sharply with one's knuckles): knock, noogie

Derived terms

Translations

to strike something sharply with one's knuckles

Bulgarian: почуквам (bg) (počukvam)
Finnish: koputtaa (fi)
Maori: pātōtō
Russian: стуча́ть (ru) (stučátʹ)
Scottish Gaelic: buail

to speak lyrics in the style of rap music

Dutch: rappen (nl)
Esperanto: repi
Finnish: räpätä (fi)
Italian: rappare (it)
Polish: rapować
Spanish: rapear (es) (colloquial)

Etymology 3

Uncertain.

Noun

rap (plural raps)

A lea or skein of yarn that forms the standard length taken from the reel, 80 yards of worsted or 120 yards of silk or cotton.
- 1762, The Statutes at Large (Great Britain), page 386:
  […] and that every hank or skein that shall be used as a binder to tie up or bind together any pound or parcel of yarn shall contain the same number of threads in a rap or lea, and the same number of raps or leas as the other hanks or skeins in the said pound or parcel.
- 1881, Alfred Spitzli, A Manual for Managers, Designers, Weavers, and All Others, page 22:
  At each rap the reel was moved slightly to one side, so that the next rap was wound separately, and so on until seven raps had been made, then the seven raps were made up into one hank, […]
- 1885, Thomas Rotherforth Ashenhurst, A practical treatise on weaving and designing of textile fabrics:
  Thus, a rap may be reeled (of cotton or silk 120 yards, of worsted 80 yards), then as one rap is equal to one-seventh of a hank, 1000 grains will be equal to the one-seventh of a pound, so that whatever part of 1000 grains one rap weighs, or whatever number of raps are required to weigh1000 grains, that number of hanks will weigh one pound.
- 1888, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Manchester Meeting, 1887 on the Regulation of Wages by Means of Lists in the Cotton Industry., page 19:
  The yarn rap reel is 1½ yard in circumference; 80 rounds or 120 yards make one rap; 7 raps or 840 yards one bank. In 1 lb. of cotton yarn there are 7,000 grains. When one rap weighs 1,000 grains, or seven raps 7,000 grains, the yarn is one hank to the pound, and when ten raps weigh 350 grains it is 28.57 hanks to the pound.
- 1913, How to Build, Equip and Operate a Cotton Mill in the United States, page 408:
  Rule to find constant for beams: Multiply the number of yards in one rap by the number of ends in the beam, and by the number of raps on the beam and divide by 840.

Etymology 4

Perhaps contracted from rapparee.

Noun

rap (plural raps)

(historical) Any of the tokens that passed current for a halfpenny in Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century; any coin of trifling value.
- 1724, Jonathan Swift, “Drapier's Letters”, in 1:
  Many counterfeits passed about under the name of raps.
- 1886, Mrs. Alexander, Beaton's Bargain:
  Tie it [her money] up so tight that you can't touch a rap, save with her consent.
A whit; a jot.
I don't care a rap.

That's not worth a rap.

Etymology 5

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Scand., as Ice. hrapa, to rush headlong, cog. with Ger. raffen, to snatch.”)

Verb

rap (third-person singular simple present raps, present participle rapping, simple past and past participle rapped or rapt)

(transitive) To seize and carry off.
(transitive) To transport out of oneself; to affect with rapture.

Etymology 6

From RAP (“record of arrest and prosecution”).

Noun

rap (plural raps)

(US, law enforcement) Acronym of record of arrest and prosecution.
Synonym: RAP
(countable, slang) A charge, whether or not it results in a conviction.
- 2014, James Neal Harvey, Mental Case:
  We got one maybe ID, but when we checked, we found out the suspect's been in Rikers for a year on a drug rap.

Derived terms

Etymology 7

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

rap (third-person singular simple present raps, present participle rapping, simple past and past participle rapped)

to rappel

Derived terms

Anagrams

APR, ARP, Apr, Apr., Arp, PAR, PRA, Par, RPA, apr, arp, par

Acehnese

Adjective

rap

near

References

2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

Basque