gap it

English

Etymology

In allusion to the gap that separated Salisbury (Harare) from the border crossing point with South Africa at Beitbridge.

Verb

gap it

1. (slang, historical) Of a white inhabitant of Rhodesia: to emigrate from the country during its transition to independence.

   Synonym: take the gap

   • 2015, Hannes Wessels, A Handful of Hard Men: The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia, page 265:

     […] but that he would out-think and out-manoeuvre whatever they could throw at us and if we had to gap it because the odds were insurmountable, who better to be with than Darrell.

   • 2019, David Kenrick, Decolonisation, Identity and Nation in Rhodesia, 1964-1979, page 2:

     By 1979, thousands had 'gapped it', or taken the 'chicken run', as emigration was derisively known […]

See also

• chicken run