Sap

From Fresh Dictionary

English

Etymology 1

Anglo Saxon sÃ¦p; akin to Old High German saf, German saft, Icelandic safi; of uncertain origin; possibly akin to Latin sapere to taste, to be wise, sapa must or new wine boiled thick; compare sapid and sapient

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Noun

Sap (countable and uncountable; plural Saps)

(uncountable) The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition.
(uncountable) The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.
(countable) ((slang{{#if:|, {{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}{{#if:|, {{{4}}}{{#if:|, {{{5}}}{{#if:|, {{{6}}}{{#if:|, {{{7}}}{{#if:|, {{{8}}}{{#if:|, {{{9}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}})) A simpleton; a saphead; a milksop; a naive person.
(countable) A leather-covered hand weapon; a blackjack.

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Derived terms

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Translations

the juice of plants of any kind

Finnish: mahla
French: sÃ¨ve f.
German: Saft m.

Spanish: savia

the sapwood of a tree

German: Mantelholz n., Splint m.

slang: a saphead

Finnish: hÃ¶lmÃ¶

a leather-covered hand weapon

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Translations to be checked

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Dutch: sap n.
Interlingua: succo
Italian: linfa

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Etymology 2

French saper (compare Spanish zapar and Italian zapare) from sape a sort of scythe, from Late Latin sappa a sort of mattock

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Transitive verb

to sap (third-person singular simple present saps, present participle sapping, simple past sapped, past participle sapped)

To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of.
Quotations
- Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, / Their houses fell upon their household gods. - John Dryden
(military) To pierce with saps.
To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken.
Quotations
- Ring out the grief that saps the mind. - Alfred Tennyson
To gradually weaken
to sap one's conscience

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Translations

undermine

Finnish: heikentÃ¤Ã¤

pierce with saps

make unstable; weaken

Finnish: uuvuttaa, heikentÃ¤Ã¤

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Intransitive verb

to sap (third-person singular simple present saps, present participle sapping, simple past sapped, past participle sapped)

To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps - W. P. Craighill
Both assaults carried on by sapping. - The Tatler

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Translations

proceed by mining

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Noun

Sap (plural Saps)

(military) A narrow ditch or trench made from the foremost parallel toward the glacis or covert way of a besieged place by digging under cover of gabions, etc.

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