transcription, транскрипция: [ læp ]
( laps, lapping, lapped)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
If you have something on your lap when you are sitting down, it is on top of your legs and near to your body.
She waited quietly with her hands in her lap...
Hugh glanced at the child on her mother’s lap.
N-COUNT : poss N
2.
In a race, a competitor completes a lap when they have gone round a course once.
...that last lap of the race...
On lap two, Baker edged forward.
N-COUNT : usu ord / adj N , N num
3.
In a race, if you lap another competitor, you go past them while they are still on the previous lap.
He was caught out while lapping a slower rider.
VERB : V n
4.
A lap of a long journey is one part of it, between two points where you stop.
I had thought we might travel as far as Oak Valley, but we only managed the first lap of the journey.
= leg
N-COUNT : N of n , ord / adj N
5.
When water laps against something such as the shore or the side of a boat, it touches it gently and makes a soft sound. ( WRITTEN )
...the water that lapped against the pillars of the boathouse...
The building was right on the river and the water lapped the walls.
VERB : V prep / adv , V n
• lap‧ping
The only sound was the lapping of the waves.
N-UNCOUNT : the N of n
6.
When an animal laps a drink, it uses short quick movements of its tongue to take liquid up into its mouth.
The cat lapped milk from a dish.
VERB : V n
•
Lap up means the same as lap .
She poured some water into a plastic bowl. Faust, her Great Dane, lapped it up with relish.
PHRASAL VERB : V n P
7.
If you say that a situation is in the lap of the gods , you mean that its success or failure depends entirely on luck or on things that are outside your control.
They had to stop the operation, so at that stage my life was in the lap of the gods.
PHRASE : v-link PHR