knap

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /næp/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -æp
  • Homophone: nap

Etymology 1[edit]

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

Verb[edit]

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.
  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
Usage notes[edit]

(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.

Synonyms[edit]
  • (break flakes from brittle material): chip
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]

Noun[edit]

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'.

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

knap (plural knaps) (chiefly dialect)

  1. A protuberance; a swelling; a knob.
  2. The crest of a hill
  3. A small hill

Etymology 3[edit]

Verb[edit]

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”)
References[edit]
  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

References[edit]

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

Danish[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

knap

  1. scant, scarce
  2. brief, concise
Inflection[edit]
Inflection of knap
Positive Comparative Superlative
Indefinte common singular knap — —2
Indefinite neuter singular knapt — —2
Plural knappe — —2
Definite attributive1 knappe — —
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Adverb[edit]

knap

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

Etymology 2[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

knap c (singular definite knappen, plural indefinite knapper)

  1. button (in clothes etc.)
  2. button (in machines)
Inflection[edit]
Declension of knap
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative knap knappen knapper knapperne
genitive knaps knappens knappers knappernes

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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]

Adjective[edit]

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
Inflection[edit]
Inflection of knap
uninflected knap
inflected knappe
comparative knapper
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial knap knapper het knapst
het knapste
indefinite m./f. sing. knappe knappere knapste
n. sing. knap knapper knapste
plural knappe knappere knapste
definite knappe knappere knapste
partitive knaps knappers —
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
  • → Caribbean Javanese: knap

Adverb[edit]

knap

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

Etymology 2[edit]

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb[edit]

knap

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

References[edit]

  1. ^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “knap2”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute
  2. ^ P.A.F. van Veen en N. van der Sijs (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2e druk, Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht/Antwerpen

Kashubian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from German knapp.

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Adverb[edit]

knap (not comparable)

  1. (dated) narrowly, just, barely, merely
    Synonyms: ledwie, ledwò

Further reading[edit]

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

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old English cnæp.

Noun[edit]

knap

  1. Alternative form of knappe (“knob”)

Etymology 2[edit]

Possibly onomatopoeic.

Noun[edit]

knap

  1. Alternative form of knappe (“strike”)

Serbo-Croatian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From German knapp.

Adjective[edit]

knap (Cyrillic spelling кнап)

  1. (colloquial) tight

Adverb[edit]

knap (Cyrillic spelling кнап)

  1. (colloquial) tightly, barely

Related terms[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Noun[edit]

knap c

  1. (nautical) cleat

Declension[edit]

Declension of knap 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative knap knapen knapar knaparna
Genitive knaps knapens knapars knaparnas

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

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