lap

noun

1. The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.
2. An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth.
3. The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered.
4. (figuratively)A place of rearing and fostering.
5. The upper legs of a seated person.

   “The boy was sitting on his mother's lap.”

6. (archaic, euphemistic)The female pudenda.
7. A component that overlaps or covers any portion of itself or of an adjacent component.
8. The act or process of lapping.
9. That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another.

   “the lap of a board”

10. The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping.

    “The second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.”

11. 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 below).
12. One circuit around a race track.

    “to run twenty laps”

    “to drive the fastest lap in qualifying”

    “to win by three laps”

    “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.”

13. The traversal of one length of the pool, or (less commonly) one length and back again.

    “to swim two laps”

14. 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.
15. A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
16. A piece of brass, lead, or other soft metal, used to hold a cutting or polishing powder in cutting glass, gems, etc. or in polishing cutlery or in toolmaking. It is usually in the form of a wheel or disk that revolves on a vertical axis.
17. (countable, uncountable)The taking of liquid into the mouth with the tongue.

    “With each lap of its tongue a cat gathers up milk and throws it well back into the gateway of its throat […]”

18. (obsolete, slang, uncountable)Liquor; alcoholic drink.
19. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, colloquial)Clipping of laparoscopy.
20. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, colloquial)Clipping of laparotomy
21. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of load, assemble, pack (“munitions operations”).

verb

1. (transitive)To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.

   “Her garment spreads, and laps him in the fold.”

2. (transitive)To rest or recline in someone's lap, or as in a lap.

   “to lap his head on lady's breast”

3. (transitive)To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.

   “to lap a piece of cloth”

4. (transitive)to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up

   “to lap a bandage around a finger”

   “About the paper […] I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk.”

5. (transitive)to envelop, enfold

   “lapped in luxury”

6. (intransitive)to wind around
7. (transitive)To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.

   “One laps roof tiles so that water can run off.”

8. (transitive)To polish (a surface, especially metal or gemstone) with very fine abrasive to achieve smoothness and small dimensional changes.
9. (intransitive)To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.

   “The cloth laps back.”

   “The boats lap; the edges lap.”

   “The upper wings are opacous[…]; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a fly.”

10. (transitive)To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.
11. To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc.
12. (ambitransitive)To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.

    “Don’t lap your soup like that! You look like a dog.”

    “They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.”

    “The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily […]as they run along the shore.”

13. (intransitive)To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.

    “I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag.”

adj

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, colloquial, not-comparable)Clipping of laparoscopic.