Rap (?), n. [Etymol. uncertain.]
A lay or skein containing 120 yards of yarn.
Knight.
© Webster 1913.
Rap, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rapped (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Rapping.] [Akin to Sw. rappa to strike, rapp stroke, Dan. rap, perhaps of imitative origin.]
To strike with a quick, sharp blow; to knock; as, to rap on the door.
© Webster 1913.
Rap, v. t.
1.
To strike with a quick blow; to knock on.
With one great peal they rap the door.
Prior.
2. Founding
To free (a pattern) in a mold by light blows on the pattern, so as to facilitate its removal.
© Webster 1913.
Rap, n.
A quick, smart blow; a knock.
© Webster 1913.
Rap, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rapped (?), usually written Rapt; p. pr. & vb. n. Rapping.] [OE. rapen; akin to LG. & D. rapen to snatch, G. raffen, Sw. rappa; cf. Dan. rappe sig to make haste, and Icel. hrapa to fall, to rush, hurry. The word has been confused with L. rapere to seize. Cf. Rape robbery, Rapture, Raff, v., Ramp, v.]
1.
To snatch away; to seize and hurry off.
And through the Greeks and Ilians they rapt
The whirring chariot.
Chapman.
From Oxford I was rapt by my nephew, Sir Edmund Bacon, to Redgrove.
Sir H. Wotton.
2.
To hasten.
[Obs.]
Piers Plowman.
3.
To seize and bear away, as the mind or thoughts; to transport out of one's self; to affect with ecstasy or rapture; as, rapt into admiration.
I'm rapt with joy to see my Marcia's tears.
Addison.
Rapt into future times, the bard begun.
Pope.
4.
To exchange; to truck.
[Obs. & Law]
To rap and ren, To rap and rend. [Perhaps fr. Icel. hrapa to hurry and raena plunder, fr. ran plunder, E. ran.] To seize and plunder; to snatch by violence. Dryden. "[Ye] waste all that ye may rape and renne."
Chaucer.
All they could rap and rend pilfer.
Hudibras.
-- To rap out, to utter with sudden violence, as an oath.
A judge who rapped out a great oath.
Addison.
<-- 5. To engage in a discussion, converse; (b) (ca. 1985) to perform a type of rhythmic talking, often with accompanying rhythm instruments. -->
© Webster 1913.
Rap, n. [Perhaps contr. fr. raparee.]
A popular name for any of the tokens that passed current for a half-penny in Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century; any coin of trifling value.
Many counterfeits passed about under the name of raps.
Swift.
Tie it [her money] up so tight that you can't touch a rap,
save with her consent.
Mrs. Alexander.
<-- 5. conversation, also rapping; (b) (ca. 1985) a type of rhythmic talking, often with accompanying rhythm instruments; rap music. -->
Not to care a rap, to care nothing. -- Not worth a rap, worth nothing.
© Webster 1913.