neap
/niːp/
neap noun: the tongue or pole of a cart or other vehicle drawn by two animals. Also the alternative form of neep.
Noun (1)
neap (plural neaps)
Adjective
neap (not comparable)
- Low; lowest; the ebb or lowest point of a tide.
- Designating a tide which occurs just after the first and third quarters of the moon, when there is the least difference between high tide and low tide.
- Little groups of sailors came swinging along and pushied their way noisily inside the gaudy joints. Sex everywhere: it was slopping over, a neap tide that swept the props from under the city.1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
Verb
neap (third-person singular simple present neaps, present participle neaping, simple past and past participle neaped)
- To trap (a ship) in water too shallow to move, due to the smaller tidal range occurring in a period of neap tides.
- At 8, being high water, hauld her bow close ashore, but Keept her stern afloat, because I was afraid of Neaping her, and yet it was necessary to lay the whole of her as near the ground as possible.1770, Captain James Cook, Journal During the First Voyage Round the World, entry for 22 June 1770
- To ooze, to sink, to subside, to tail.
- It is well known that the spring tides happen at the change and full of the moon, at which time she is conjunction with and opposition to the sun. As these retire from their conjunction, the tides neap till about three days after the first quadrature, when the tides begin again to be more and more...1831, Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, volume II page 860
Noun (2)
neap (plural neaps)
- A neap tide.
- Both […] swam not landward, but toward the horizon. Very good luck, for they entered a neap rushing headlong toward shore and into a river beyond.2008, Toni Morrison, A Mercy, Chatto & Windus, page 115
Also used as
neap is also the alternative form of neep.
Forms of neap
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | neaps |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | neaps |
| present participle | neaping |
| past participle | neaped |
| past | neaped |
Origin of neap
Perhaps of Scandinavian origin: compare dialectal Norwegian neip (“forked pole”).
From Middle English neep, from Old English nēp (“scant, lacking”), possibly from Proto-Germanic *nōpiz (“narrow”). Found especially in Old English nēpflōd (“neap tide”, literally “low tide”). Compare Norwegian dialectal nøpen (“scarce, scant, barely enough”).
Words formed from neap
Phrases with neap
Words that rhyme with neap
Questions about neap
- What does neap mean?
- Neap means the tongue or pole of a cart or other vehicle drawn by two animals.
- What part of speech is neap?
- Neap can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce neap?
- Neap is pronounced /niːp/.
- What is the plural of neap?
- The plural of neap is neaps.
Words near neap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: neap (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-neap.wav.
Cite this entry: “neap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/neap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.