nap
/næp/
nap verb: to have a nap; to sleep for a short period of time, especially during the day.
Verb (1)
nap (third-person singular simple present naps, present participle napping, simple past and past participle napped)
- To have a nap; to sleep for a short period of time, especially during the day.
- To be off one's guard.
- The regulators were caught napping by the financial collapse.
- I took thee napping, unprepared.1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished...
Noun (1)
nap (plural naps)
- A short period of sleep, especially one during the day.
Noun (2)
nap (countable and uncountable, plural naps)
- A soft or fuzzy surface, generally on fabric or leather.
- I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- On his long, gaunt body, he carried no spare flesh, no superfluous beard, his chin having a soft, economical nap to it, like the worn nap of his broad-brimmed hat.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “16”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
- The common direction, on some kinds of fabric, of the hairs making up the pile.
- If the fabric has a nap, make sure all pieces are cut with the nap going the same direction.
- Instead of grinding the pistons straight around the axis, they are ground diagonally with a special-built machine. As a result, the “nap” of the metal is turned in such a way that, when it meets the “nap” of the cylinder wall, both surfaces quickly develop a high finish which removes the danger of...1969, Classic Car, volumes 17-19, page 32
Verb (2)
nap (third-person singular simple present naps, present participle napping, simple past and past participle napped)
Noun (3)
nap (countable and uncountable, plural naps)
- A type of bet in British horse racing, based on the experts' best tips.
- 4. Races run on English, Welsh or Scottish racecourses. This criterion was included so that media tipsters ^([sic]) nap selections in general could be analysed; the source of naps, The Racing Rag 'tipster table', summarises the nap selections of newspaper tipsters, who restrict their selection to...2005, Leighton Vaughan-Williams, The Economics of Gambling, page 71
- A card game in which players take tricks; properly Napoleon.
- A bid to take five tricks in the card game Napoleon.
Verb (3)
nap (third-person singular simple present naps, present participle napping, simple past and past participle napped)
Verb (4)
nap (third-person singular simple present naps, present participle napping, simple past and past participle napped)
Noun (4)
nap (plural naps)
Noun (5) capitalized: NAP
NAP
- Acronym of non-aggression principle.
- Acronym of non-aggression pact.
- Acronym of national adaptation plan.
nap meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Punjabi
nap in Hindi
- a short period of sleep, especially during the day
- झपकी jhapkī
nap in Marathi
- a short period of sleep, especially during the day
- डुलकी ḍulkī
nap in Urdu
- a short period of sleep, especially during the day
- جَھپْکی jhapkī
nap in Punjabi
- ਝਪਕੀ ਲੈਣਾ, ਝਪਕੀ
More languagesFewer languages
- nap in Odia
- ଝପକା
- nap in Nepali
- झप्काउन
- nap in Tagalog
- idlip, umidlip, maidlip, hipig
- nap in Arabic
- تَقَيَّلَ taqayyala, أَخَذَ قَيْلُولَة ʔaḵaḏa qaylūla, قَيْلولة qaylūla, سِنَة sina
- nap in Malay
- meridap, ridap, tidur siang
- nap in Thai
- งีบ ngîip
Examples of nap in a sentence
- There were low bookshelves, there was a thick pinkish Chinese rug in which a gopher could have spent a week without showing his nose above the nap.1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 37:
- If incorporated in automatic guidance, this practical pursuit adjustment will enhance pilot acceptance of automatic guidance in following nap-of-the-earth profiles with precision.1987, Some Data Processing Requirements for Precision Nap-Of-the-Earth (NOE) Guidance and Control of Rotorcraft
Synonyms of nap
14 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- eye booger(s)
- eye bogie(s)
- eye crust
- eye goop
- eye gunk
- eye sand
- eye snot
- gound
- sleeper
- sleepies
- sleepy
- sleepy booger(s)
- sleepy dust
- sleepy sand
Forms of nap
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | naps |
| present participle | napping |
| past participle | napped |
| past | napped |
| alternative form | knap |
| Noun | |
| plural | naps |
Origin of nap
From Middle English nappen, from Old English hnappian (“to doze, slumber, sleep”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnappōn (“to nap”). Cognate with Old High German hnaffezan, hnaffezzan (whence Middle High German nafzen (“to slumber”) whence German dialectal napfezen, nafzen (“to nod, slumber, nap”)).
From Middle English nap, from the verb nappen.
From late Middle English noppe, nappe, from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German noppe, noppen (“to trim the nap”), ultimately from knappen (“to eat, crack”), of imitative origin. Related to the first element of knapsack.
Words formed from nap
Phrases with nap
- cat nap
- dog nap
- goes nap
- gone nap
- nana nap
- nap sack
- went nap
- go nap on
- going nap
- nap hands
- nap sacks
- took a nap
9 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with nap
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- scrap
- map
- rap
- slap
- overlap
- pap
- crap
- sap
- yap
- bap
- unwrap
- app
- chap
- dap
- frappe
- uncap
- wap
- entrap
- enwrap
- fap
- frap
- hap
- jap
- minimap
- Phrygian cap
- plap
- recap
- whap
- anion gap
- asap
- bad rap
- belap
- betrap
- cloth cap
- Fanny Murray cap
- FAPP
- GAAP
- ion trap
- katsap
- lagniappe
- mishap
- Noddy cap
- scap
- shrap
- stap
- umbelap
- unstrap
- voting cap
Questions about nap
- What does nap mean?
- Nap means to have a nap; to sleep for a short period of time, especially during the day.
- What is nap in Hindi?
- Nap in Hindi is झपकी (jhapkī). See Nap meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use nap in a sentence?
- There were low bookshelves, there was a thick pinkish Chinese rug in which a gopher could have spent a week without showing his nose above the nap.
- What part of speech is nap?
- Nap can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce nap?
- Nap is pronounced /næp/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of nap?
- The past tense of nap is napped.
Words near nap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nap (page history and authors); NAP (page history and authors); nap (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nap (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nap (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-knap.wav.
Cite this entry: “nap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.