What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Hap vs Lap - What's the difference?

hap | lap |

As nouns the difference between hap and lap

is that hap is that which happens; an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event; chance; fortune; luck while lap is the loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.

As verbs the difference between hap and lap

is that hap is to happen; to befall; to chance while lap is to enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.

hap

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) hap, . The verb is from (etyl) happen, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • That which happens; an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event; chance; fortune; luck.
  • * 1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Much Ado About Nothing) ,
  • URSULA. She's lim'd, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam.
    HERO. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps :
    Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
  • * Spenser
  • whether art it was or heedless hap
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • Cursed be good haps', and cursed be they that build / Their hopes on ' haps .
  • * 1851 , :
  • He at once resolved to accompany me to that island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the same watch, the same boat, the same mess with me, in short to share my every hap ; with both my hands in his, boldly dip into the Potluck of both worlds.
    Derived terms
    * hapful * haphazard * hapless * haply * happen * happenstance * happy * hapsome * mayhap * mishap * perhaps
    See also
    * what's the haps

    Verb

    (happ)
  • (literary) to happen; to befall; to chance.
  • *
  • (literary) To happen to.
  • *
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (UK, Scotland, dialect) A wrap, such as a quilt or a comforter. Also, a small or folded blanket placed on the end of a bed to keep feet warm.
  • Verb

    (happ)
  • (dialect) To wrap or clothe.
  • * Dr. J. Brown
  • The surgeon happed her up carefully.
  • *
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    lap

    English

    Etymology 1

    Old English '' (skirt or flap of a garment), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.
  • An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth.
  • The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered; figuratively, a place of rearing and fostering; as, to be reared in the lap of luxury.
  • The upper legs of a seated person.
  • The boy was sitting on his mother's lap
  • (archaic, euphemistic) The female pudenda.
  • (construction) component that overlaps or covers any portion of the same or adjacent component.
  • Derived terms
    * lapdance, lap-dance, lap dance * lapdog * lapmark * laptop

    Verb

    (lapp)
  • To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.
  • * Dryden
  • Her garment spreads, and laps him in the folds.
  • To rest or recline in a lap, or as in a lap.
  • * Praed
  • to lap his head on lady's breast

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , (etyl) dial. vravle'' "to wind", (etyl) ''goluppare "to wrap, fold up" (from (etyl)). More at envelop, develop The sense of "to get a lap ahead (of someone) on a track" is from 1847, on notion of "overlapping." The noun meaning "a turn around a track" (1861) is from this sense.

    Verb

    (lapp)
  • To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.
  • to lap a piece of cloth
  • to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up
  • to lap a bandage around a finger
  • * Isaac Newton
  • About the paper I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk.
  • to envelop, enfold
  • lapped in luxury
  • to wind around
  • To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.
  • One laps roof tiles so that water can run off.
  • To polish, e.g., a surface, until smooth.
  • To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.
  • The cloth laps''' back; the boats '''lap'''; the edges '''lap .
  • * Grew
  • The upper wings are opacous; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a fly.
  • To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.
  • To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc.
  • Derived terms
    * lapper

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act or process of lapping.
  • That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another; as, the lap of a board; also, the measure of such extension over or upon another thing.
  • The amount by which a slide valve at its half stroke overlaps a port in the seat, being equal to the distance the valve must move from its mid stroke position in order to begin to open the port. Used alone, lap refers to outside lap. See Outside lap (below).
  • The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping; as, the second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.
  • (sports) One circuit around a race track, or one traversal down and then back the length of a pool; as, to run twenty laps; to win by three laps, to swim two laps.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Andrew Benson , title=Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Alonso's second place moves him into a tie on points at the head of the championship with Sebastian Vettel, who was sixth in his Red Bull, passing Button, then Hamilton and finally Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg in quick succession in the closing laps .}}
  • In card playing and other games, the points won in excess of the number necessary to complete a game; — so called when they are counted in the score of the following game.
  • A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
  • A piece of brass, lead, or other soft metal, used to hold a cutting or polishing powder in cutting glass, gems, and the like, or in polishing cutlery, etc. It is usually in the form of wheel or disk, which revolves on a vertical axis.
  • Derived terms
    * lap of honor/lap of honour

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) lapian'', from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (lapp)
  • (ambitransitive) To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.
  • * Shakespeare
  • They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.
  • * Sir K. Digby
  • The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily as they run along the shore.
  • (of water) To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.
  • * Tennyson
  • I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag.
    Derived terms
    * lapper