Word.ws English Dictionary

chaps

/t͡ʃæps/

chaps is the plural of chap.

chaps is the third-person singular simple present indicative of chap.

Noun

chaps pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) Protective leather leggings attached at the waist.
    • If you are going to use that chainsaw, why don't you put on a pair of chaps?
    • Chaps were a costume staple of Westerns.
  2. (plural, plural-only) The shaggy hair on male aoudads (barbary sheep) that extends from the throat and chest sometimes covering each leg.
    • Mundy also points out mass of horn, scarred faces, long chaps (unless in brushy country and the thick vegetation might pull out chap hair), and scars on the sides of the ram from his long horns rubbing away the hair as good signs that you've found a respectable shooter amongst the many.2025 August, Shane Jann, “Analyzing aoudads”, in Texas Outdoors, pages 32–32

Meaning of chap

Noun (1)

chap (plural chaps)

  1. (dated outside UK and Australia) A man, a fellow.
    • Who’s that chap over there?
  2. (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
  3. (Southern US) A child.

Noun (2)

chap (plural chaps)

  1. A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
  2. (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)
  3. (Scotland) A blow; a rap.

See all 12 meanings of chap

Proper noun (1) capitalized: CHAPS

CHAPS

  1. (UK, abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of clearing house automated payment system, a method of same-day banking transfer.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Chaps

Chaps

  1. (plural) plural of Chap

Origin of chaps

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Short for American Spanish chaparreras or chaparejos. Related to chaparejos and chaparral.

Words formed from chaps

Phrases with chaps

Words that rhyme with chaps

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about chaps

What does chaps mean?
Chaps means protective leather leggings attached at the waist.
What is chaps the plural of?
Chaps is the plural of chap.
What part of speech is chaps?
Chaps can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce chaps?
Chaps is pronounced /t͡ʃæps/.

Words near chaps in the dictionary

  1. chaprassies
  2. chaprassis
  3. chaprassy
  4. chapri
  5. chapris
  6. chaps
  7. chaps someone's hide
  8. chaps.
  9. chapstick
  10. chapstick lesbian
  11. chapstick lesbians

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chaps (page history and authors); CHAPS (page history and authors); Chaps (page history and authors); chap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-chaps.wav.

Cite this entry: “chaps.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chaps. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.