Word.ws English Dictionary

threap

/θɹiːp/

threap noun: an altercation, quarrel, argument.

Noun

threap (plural threaps)

  1. (Scotland) An altercation, quarrel, argument.
  2. (Scotland) An accusation or serious charge.
    • And let us see what is to be done, and hear patiently all Assertions and Threaps; let this Rain fall to the Ground, and then fall thou to Exercise.1738, James Fraser, Memoirs of the Life of the Very Reverend Mr. James Fraser, page 181
  3. (Scotland) Stubborn insistence.
  4. (Scotland) A superstition or freet.
    • Then, (since my soul disowns the impious threap, That death is only an eternal sleep;) Then with an aching heart, I long to know, How we, my Henry, in the shades below, Shall bear the sceptre and the iron rod Of the grim Tyrant of the dark abode.1796, Thomas Muir, The Telegraph; a Consolatory Epistle

Verb

threap (third-person singular simple present threaps, present participle threaping, simple past and past participle threaped or threapt)

  1. (Scotland, transitive) To contradict.
    • I told them I went to seek him, but they threaped me and said I did not.1778, Nicholas Wilkinson, The Trial at Large of Nicholas Wilkinson
  2. (Scotland) To denounce.
    • O he is attended vpon moſt Babilonically, and Xerxes ſo ouercloyd not the Helleſpont with his foyſtes, gallies, and brigandines, as he mantleth the narrow ſeas with his retinue, being not much behinde in the checkroule of his Ianiſſaries and contributories, with Eagle-ſoaring Bullingbrooke, that at...1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 32
  3. (Scotland) To cry out; complain; contend.
  4. (Scotland) To argue; bicker; scold; rebuke
    • It's not for a man with a woman to threap.a. 1529, John Skelton, "The Old Cloak", in Thomas Percy (editor), Percy's Relics, published 1765
  5. (Scotland) To affirm; to express with conviction.
    • Come then, threap kindnesse yet apon thy King, Tell him that in the prison thou wilt sing His praises1664, John Fullartoun, The Turtle-Dove
    • Take faith with you, and the stronger it is, it will be the more agreeable present to Christ; put a firm trust and confidence in his blood and bowels, bode and threap kindness on him1761, John Willison, Sacramental meditations and advices, page 173
  6. (Scotland) To cozen or cheat.
    • Thus are men threaped out of their own persuasions.1677, Richard Gilpin, Daemonologia Sacra
  7. (Scotland) To maintain obstinately against denial or contradiction; to insist (on).
    • He threaped me down that it was so.
    • I eat some of it so prepared in an English Man's House in this City, and who would threap me down, that it was Sampire, and so named in his Country of Lincolnshire.1727, Caleb Threlkeld, Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum Alphabetice Dispositarum, page 110

Forms of threap

Noun
pluralthreaps
alternative formthreep
alternative formthreip
alternative formthrepe
alternative formthreeap
alternative formthrape
alternative formthrep
alternative formtraep
alternative formtraip
alternative formtrep
alternative formtrape
Verb
third-person singular presentthreaps
present participlethreaping
past participlethreaped
pastthreaped
past participlethreapt
pastthreapt

Origin of threap

From Middle English threp (“a rebuke”), from the verb (see below). Alternative etymology derives Middle English threp, from Old English *þrēap (“contention, strife”) (attested only as Old English þrēap, in the sense of "troop, band"), ultimately from the same Germanic origin below.

From Middle English threpen (“to scold”), from Old English þrēapian (“to reprove, reprehend, punish, blame”), from Proto-West Germanic *þraupōn, from Proto-Germanic *þraupōną (“to punish”), from Proto-Germanic *þrawō (“torment, punishment”), from Proto-Germanic *þrawjaną (“to torment, injure, exhaust”), from Proto-Indo-European *trōw- (“to beat, wound, kill, torment”). Akin to Old English þrēagan (“to rebuke, punish, chastise”), þrēa (“correction, punishment”), þrōwian (“to suffer”). More at throe.

Words formed from threap

  • threaper

Words that rhyme with threap

30 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about threap

What does threap mean?
Threap means an altercation, quarrel, argument.
What part of speech is threap?
Threap can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce threap?
Threap is pronounced /θɹiːp/.
What is the plural of threap?
The plural of threap is threaps.

Words near threap in the dictionary

  1. threadwork
  2. threadworks
  3. threadworm
  4. threadworms
  5. thready
  6. threap
  7. threaped
  8. threaping
  9. Threapland
  10. Threaplands
  11. threaps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: threap (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-threap.wav.

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