Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Rap?

\Rap\, n. [Etymol. uncertain.] A lay or skein containing 120 yards of yarn. --Knight.
\Rap\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Rapped}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Rapping}.] [Akin to Sw. rappa to strike, rapp stroke, Dan. rap, perhaps of imitative origin.] To strike with a quick, sharp blow; to knock; as, to rap on the door.
\Rap\, v. t. 1. To strike with a quick blow; to knock on. With one great peal they rap the door. --Prior. 2. (Founding) To free (a pattern) in a mold by light blows on the pattern, so as to facilitate its removal.
\Rap\, n. A quick, smart blow; a knock.
\Rap\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Rapped}, usually written {Rapt}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Rapping}.] [OE. rapen; akin to LG. & D. rapen to snatch, G. raffen, Sw. rappa; cf. Dan. rappe sig to make haste, and Icel. hrapa to fall, to rush, hurry. The word has been confused with L. rapere to seize. Cf. {Rape} robbery, {Rapture}, {Raff}, v., {Ramp}, v.] 1. To snatch away; to seize and hurry off. And through the Greeks and Ilians they rapt The whirring chariot. --Chapman. From Oxford I was rapt by my nephew, Sir Edmund Bacon, to Redgrove. --Sir H. Wotton. 2. To hasten. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman. 3. To seize and bear away, as the mind or thoughts; to transport out of one's self; to affect with ecstasy or rapture; as, rapt into admiration. I'm rapt with joy to see my Marcia's tears. --Addison. Rapt into future times, the bard begun. --Pope. 4. To exchange; to truck. [Obs. & Law] {To rap and ren}, {To rap and rend}. [Perhaps fr. Icel. hrapa to hurry and r[ae]na plunder, fr. r[=a]n plunder, E. ran.] To seize and plunder; to snatch by violence. --Dryden. ``[Ye] waste all that ye may rape and renne.'' --Chaucer. All they could rap and rend pilfer. --Hudibras. {To rap out}, to utter with sudden violence, as an oath. A judge who rapped out a great oath. --Addison.
\Rap\, n. [Perhaps contr. fr. raparee.] A popular name for any of the tokens that passed current for a half-penny in Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century; any coin of trifling value. Many counterfeits passed about under the name of raps. --Swift. Tie it [her money] up so tight that you can't touch a rap, save with her consent. --Mrs. Alexander. {Not to care a rap}, to care nothing. {Not worth a rap}, worth nothing.