Clipping of chapman (“dealer, customer”) in 16th-century English.
Meanings
(qualifier:dated outside UK and Australia) A man, a fellow.
A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’ 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
Who’s that chap over there?
“Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps.” 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194:
(UK, dialectal) A customer, a buyer.
If you have Blacks of any kind, brought in of late; Mantoes--Velvet Scarfs--Petticoats--Let it be what it will--I am your Chap--for all my Ladies are very fond of Mourning. 1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera, Act 3:
ca home (man or fellow) · it tizio (man or fellow) · fi kaveri (man or fellow) · fi kersa (colloquial: child) · fr bougre (man or fellow) · cmn 家伙 (man or fellow) · ru чува́к (man or fellow) · pt cara (man or fellow) · scn tipu (man or fellow) · pdt Benjel (man or fellow) · cy boi (man or fellow) · io kerlo (man or fellow) · sq çapkën (colloquial: child) · cy bachan (man or fellow) · fr mec (man or fellow) · nl kerel (man or fellow) · ar شَاب (man or fellow) · mi autaia (man or fellow) · mi tāhae (man or fellow) · pl gość (man or fellow) · scn tizziu (man or fellow) · ru па́рень (man or fellow) · nl gozer (man or fellow) · ru кент (man or fellow) · bg момче́ (man or fellow) · ru мужи́к (man or fellow) · fr quidam (man or fellow) · fi kundi (dialectal: customer, buyer) · pt cabra (man or fellow) · bg чове́к (man or fellow) · nl klant (man or fellow) · es tipo (man or fellow) · pt camarada (man or fellow) · nrf gas (man or fellow) · de Typ (man or fellow) · mi korokē (man or fellow) · ja やつ (man or fellow) · cmn 小子 (man or fellow) · ar رَجُل (man or fellow) · it tipo (man or fellow) · fi kundi (man or fellow) · ca individu (man or fellow) · mi tāhake (man or fellow) · scn cristianu (man or fellow) · ta ஆள் (man or fellow) · ota حریف (man or fellow) · ca noi (man or fellow) · oc amic (man or fellow) · ru ма́лый (man or fellow) · de Kerl (man or fellow) · ja 奴 (man or fellow)
From Middle English chappen (“to split open, burst, chap”), of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English choppen (“to chop”), Dutch kappen (“to cut, chop, hack”). Perhaps related to chip.
Meanings
A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
(obsolete) A division; a breach, as in a party.
Many clefts and chaps in our council board. 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
From Middle English chappen (“to split open, burst, chap”), of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English choppen (“to chop”), Dutch kappen (“to cut, chop, hack”). Perhaps related to chip.
Meanings
(intransitive) Of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
(transitive) To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.
Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, / Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain. 1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem:
whose fair face neither the summer's blaze can scorch nor winter's blast chap. 1591, John Lyly, Endymion:
(Northern-England, Scotland) To strike, knock.
And then it seems that through the open door there came the chapping of a clock. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
The door was shut into my class. I had to chap it and then Miss Rankine came and opened it and gived me an angry look […] 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 35:
mi titupu (of skin: to split or flake) · de aufrauen (of skin: to split or flake) · izh rakehoittaa (of skin: to cause to split or flake) · sq çaj (of skin: to cause to split or flake) · es agrietarse (of skin: to split or flake) · io ekzemeskar (of skin: to split or flake) · fi ahavoitua (of skin: to split or flake) · fi halkeilla (of skin: to split or flake) · bg нацепвам се (of skin: to split or flake) · bg напуквам се (of skin: to split or flake) · fr crevasser (of skin: to cause to split or flake) · fi ahavoida (of skin: to cause to split or flake) · pt rachar (of skin: to split or flake) · ta வெடி (of skin: to split or flake) · ast ariar (of skin: to split or flake) · hu kicserepesedik (of skin: to split or flake) · izh ahavoa (of skin: to cause to split or flake) · ru тре́скаться (of skin: to split or flake) · sq ça (of skin: to split or flake)
From Northern English chafts (“jaws”). Compare also Middle English cheppe (“one side of the jaw, chap”).
Meanings
(archaic, in-plural, often) The jaw.
His chaps were all besmear'd with crimson blood. a. 1667, Abraham Cowley, The Song:
This wide-chapp'd rascal—would thou might'st lie drowning / The washing of ten tides! 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
He unseamed him from the nave to the chaps. c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]: