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Chap vs Chapess - What's the difference?

chap | chapess |

As nouns the difference between chap and chapess

is that chap is (dated|outside|uk|and|australia) a man, a fellow or chap can be a cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin or chap can be (archaic) the jaw (often in plural) while chapess is (british|informal) a female chap; a woman.

As a verb chap

is of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.

chap

English

Etymology 1

Shortened from in 16th century English.

Noun

(en noun)
  • (dated, outside, UK, and, Australia) A man, a fellow.
  • *
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=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.}}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=20 citation , passage=‘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 .’}}
  • (UK, dialectal) A customer, a buyer.
  • * Steele
    • If you want to sell, here is your chap .
  • (Southern US) A child.
    • Usage notes
    This word's existence in the US can be seen in the Pennsylvania German term .
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * chappie * chappo

    Etymology 2

    Related to chip .

    Verb

    (chapp)
  • Of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
  • To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.
  • * Blackmore
    • Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, / Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain.
  • * Lyly
    • Nor winter's blast chap her fair face.
  • (Scotland, northern England) To strike, knock.
  • * 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, page 35:
    • 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 [...].
    Derived terms
    * chapped * chapstick

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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.
  • * T. Fuller
    • Many clefts and chaps in our council board.
  • (Scotland) A blow; a rap.
    • Derived terms
    * chappy

    Etymology 3

    From Northern English .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) The jaw (often in plural).
  • *1610 , , by Shakespeare
    • This wide-chapp'd rascal—would thou might'st lie drowning / The washing of ten tides!
  • * Cowley
    • His chaps were all besmeared with crimson blood.
  • * Shakespeare
    • He unseamed him from the nave to the chaps .
  • One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.

    • See also

    * chaps

    Anagrams

    *

    chapess

    English

    Noun

    (chapesses)
  • (British, informal) A female chap; a woman.
  • * 1990 , Samuel Gorley Putt, Wings of a Man's Life
    • My friends are the undergraduates, chaps and chapesses , and as long as I can pour good wine down their gullets and listen into the small hours...
  • * 2005 , James Hawes, Speak for England
    • ...so naturally, we simply couldn't afford to have chaps and chapesses tying the knot and then not having babies after all that fuss.
  • * 2006 , Mark Simpson, Saint Morrissey
    • Those revered as saints are usually very peculiar chaps and chapesses who succeeded in refusing life just short of actually killing themselves...

    Usage notes

    Generally only used in the phrase chaps and chapesses .